Voltron: Universal Defender
by Spirit Reader
Summary: AU. For over 10,000 years, the evil Galra Empire, lead by the ruthless Emperor Zarkon, has held most of the known universe in a vicious death grip. In order to stop them, 5 unlikely pilots from Earth must come together and find the one force strong enough to repel this massive threat. They must bring back Voltron, the Defender of the Universe!
1. Chapter 1

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

* * *

**Chapter 1**: _Beginnings – Part 1_

Space: the Final Frontier. Throughout the entire history of the human race there's been one question that's always plagued the mind. What truly lies beyond our border? In order to solve that question, planet Earth has spent the last several centuries studying and gathering the resources necessary to head out into space and finally discover what really resides out there. It's through this drive to discover the unknown that culminated in Earth's primary organization for space exploration; The Galaxy Garrison.

First formed during the mid 1950's, the Galaxy Garrison is a collection of the Earth's most brilliant and skilled individuals, all of whom come together under the shared goal of exploring and understanding the universe. It's through their combined effort that they not only achieved the goal landing a man on the moon, but also being able to land a man on another planet; Mars. The feats that the Garrison was able to perform were incredible and, as the years passed, they continued to further themselves and the rest of humanity to even further heights. Still, despite all their accomplishments, there was still one question that they have yet to answer. Is there truly life outside of Earth?

The thought of extraterrestrial life has been a long talked about debate that has lasted almost as long as the desire to get a man out into space. Many claim that there's no such thing as aliens, while just as many claim that they do in fact exist. In order to help solve this long debated question, the scientists of the Galaxy Garrison have spent countless resources in order to find clues that could possibly lead to the discovery of alien life. Unfortunately, none of their efforts managed to result in anything concrete. Still, mankind refused to give up and continued their search for the truth.

This eventually resulted in the Galaxy Garrison to perform its most daring and dangerous mission yet; traveling to Kerberos, one of the moons of Pluto. The voyage is the first of its kind and required not only the best ship in order to reach the moon, but also the best crew as well. This 3-man crew consisted of Dr. Thomas Mitchell, his assistant Amrita Punjabi, and their skilled pilot Marcus Robinson. The voyage was a long and difficult one, but with their hearts and minds set on their goal, the crew was finally able to reach Kerberos after nearly a year.

Upon first landing on the moon, Dr. Mitchell decided that the first thing that they should do was collect a few samples in order to bring back to Earth. To that end, he and Marcus brought out a giant digger and had it drill a hole into the moon's surface. While they did that, Amrita was busy watching the monitor, making sure that their efforts weren't putting any unnecessary stress on Kerberos. Once the process was complete, Amrita proceeded to slowly remove a piece of ice from the digger, her eyes marveling at the mere sight of it.

"Amazing…" She said with a smile on her face. "I know it's just ice, but still…"

"I agree…" Dr. Mitchell followed. "It may not look like much on the surface, but this ice may contain secrets that exceed our highest expectations. Just of that has my heart racing in anticipation. What do you think, Marcus?"

"…It is pretty impressive," Marcus answered. "But I think what's even more impressive is what we did in order to get these ice samples."

As Marcus took a moment to look up and take in and bask in the vastness that is outer space, a huge smile slowly appeared on the young man's face. When both Amrita and Dr. Mitchell saw that look both of them immediately understood where Marcus was coming from and why he felt that way.

Even as a little boy, Marcus has always had a strong desire to one day head out towards the stars. This stemmed from his parents, who were two of the most gifted space explorers that not only graced the Galaxy Garrison, but the entire Earth as well. Wanting to follow in their footsteps, Marcus trained both his body and mind vigorously, which not only enabled him to enter the Garrison, but also become the youngest to successfully lead a mission into space, doing so at the age of 19. It was an amazing accomplishment, but Marcus continued to strive for even greater heights. So, when Dr. Mitchell personally requested that he be the pilot for the Kerberos mission, Marcus immediately jumped at the opportunity.

Now that he was here, Marcus was once again convinced that he made the right decision in his career path and he was even more determined to see what other mysterious he can discover while out in space. To that end, he eagerly continued gathering more ice samples and, upon seeing his enthusiasm, was soon joined by an equally eager Amrita and Dr. Mitchell. Eventually, after gathering up enough samples, the crew prepared themselves for the next stage of their mission.

"Alright you guys…" Dr. Mitchell said. "For the next step we should…"

Before he could continue explaining, Dr. Mitchell stopped talking when he suddenly felt the ground shake beneath his feet. As the shaking gradually grew more intense, both Marcus and Amrita started to feel it as well and wondered what was going on.

"Seismic activity…?" Amrita questioned. "But what could be causing it?"

"I'm not sure," Marcus replied. "But we better head back to the ship. It's not safe out…here…"

While looking out into the distance, Marcus eyes widen in disbelief as a cold sweat started too developed while within his spacesuit. When they looked in the same direction as him, both Amrita and Dr. Mitchell were also just as shocked. Somehow, from completely out of nowhere, a giant spacecraft appeared and was hovering just above Kerberos. The mere sight of the craft was something to behold. Unfortunately, instead of excitement, the crew could only feel a strong sense fear coming from the ship as it towered over them.

"This…can't be." Dr. Mitchell spoke.

As they continued to look on at the craft, Marcus was the first to notice that a light started to glow from the top of its Bow. Although it took him a second it realize it, Marcus was horrified to realize that the spacecraft was about to fire something at both him and his crewmates. Because of that, he quickly grabbed both Dr. Mitchell and Amrita by their arms and started racing back towards their own ship.

"Quick! We got to get out of here now!"

The crew raced off as fast as the possibly could, trying their best not to be slowed down by Kerberos's lesser gravity. Unfortunately for them, the mysterious spacecraft finished charging its weapon and proceeded to fire it upon the moon's surface, right on top of Marcus and the others. However, what they were hit with was not a lethal weapon, but instead some kind of tractor beam, the force which was quickly pulling them towards the ship.

"No…Ah…Ahhhh!"

Upon being brought onto the ship a sudden darkness enveloped Marcus and his crew. Before any of them could process what was going on they were then suddenly knocked out by an unknown force. In the moments following, Marcus started drifting in and out of consciousness, barely able to comprehend what was happening. All he was able to notice in that state is that something was dragging himself of somewhere.

Eventually, as he was slowly beginning to wake up again, Marcus noticed that he was in a highly advanced control room, the like of which he could hardly believe. He also noticed that both Amrita and Dr. Mitchell were lying on the ground next to him, both of whom still had their spacesuits on. However, before he could determine if his crew was alright, something more urgent immediately caught Marcus's attention.

To the young man's shock, Marcus saw an alien standing in front of a giant display screen. He had dark purple skin, piercing yellow eyes, and sharp pointed ears. Just looking at him both frightened and amazed Marcus as this was the first time he's encountered alien before. Unfortunately, any amazement he felt immediately turned into utter horror as he listened to a conversation that the alien was having.

"We found these primitive scientists. I don't think they know anything useful."

"_Take them back to the main fleet for interrogation. The Druids will find out what they know."_

Upon hearing that conversation, Marcus immediately understood the situation that he and his crew were in. As a result, he quickly stood up and attempted to get the alien's attention.

"Wait, Please!" He called out. "We mean you now harm. We come from a peaceful planet and we wanted were-"

Before Marcus could finish his plea however, the young man was suddenly knocked from behind by a robot. After he fell to the ground, the alien turned around slightly and glared at Marcus with a look of utter disgust. He then turned his attention over towards the robot.

"Take them away."

Without even a word, the robot complied and proceeded to drag Marcus out of the room. Shortly after that, two more robots appeared and went on to do the same with both Amrita and Dr. Mitchell. Once all three of them were gone, the alien turned his focus back towards the display screen.

"_Continue with your search," _The voice from the screen ordered. _"Bring me Voltron!"_

"…Vrepit sa!"

* * *

_**1 Year Later**_

"Galaxy Garrison Log: 5114. Preparing descent to Kerberos for rescue mission."

These words came from the mouth of Antonio 'Tony' Martinelli, a skilled pilot from the Galaxy Garrison's cadet program. Together with his engineer, Kevin Peterson, and science officer, Felicia Daniels, Tony was leading a simulated mission to Kerberos in the hopes of finding out what really happened on the moon one year ago.

Following the incident, and the disappearance Marcus and his crew, the Galaxy Garrison began putting their cadets through extremely difficult drills and simulation in order to prepare them for any eventuality. The reason for this was rather simple. If someone as skilled as Marcus Robinson, who was widely considered to be one of the Garrison's most gifted pilots, can die out there in space, then anyone can. To that end, every cadet was thoroughly trained so that such an incident doesn't occur again. Unfortunately, for Tony and his team, things were looking rather difficult for them.

"Hey…Please be careful Tony!" A panicked Kevin said as he felt the ship that he was in shake from sudden turbulence. "You know how I get during these drills!"

"Oh calm down, Kev," Tony replied. "I'm just making sure I have a proper feel for the controls before we land. Now, things might get a bit hairy if I did something like…this!"

Pushing the controls to the ship down, Tony caused the ship to take a sudden nosedive for a few moments. This resulted in Kevin not only hitting his head on the control console that was front of him, but also feeling nauseous as well.

"C'mon Tony, please stop!" Kevin pleaded

"Could you morons please stop messing around and get to work!"

Turning their heads towards the left, Tony and Kevin saw that their crewmate, Felicia, was looking at them with a very angry expression on her face. It was obvious that the young woman was clearly not amused by what was going on and seemed like she was about to snap. Just as Tony was about to say something in response however, a siren started going off from within the cockpit.

Upon hearing it, Felicia quickly turned her attention back towards her dashboard and saw a signal was coming from surface of Kerberos. After triple checking the signal, she was able to confirm its sincerity.

"It's a distress beacon!" She declared.

"Alright then team, let's look alive!" Tony replied, getting himself focused. "Felicia, try and isolate that signal. Kev, prepare to initiate landing sequence!"

"Copy!"

As Tony began directing the ship closer to the moon's surface, Felicia began typing on her dashboard at an incredible speed. Unfortunately, while the two of them were doing their tasks, Kevin was trying his best not to lose his nerve. The constant shaking that resulted from Tony's piloting, combined with the pressure he was feeling due to him needing to position the landing gear just right, caused him to feel even more nauseous.

When Tony saw that the landing gear still hadn't been deployed yet, he quickly turned himself around and saw that Kevin was just about to vomit. Seeing this caused the usually confident pilot to start to panic, prompting him to unbuckle his safety harness and make his way over to his crewmate.

"C'mon man, you can't afford to throw up now!" He told him. "Pull yourself together!"

"I…I'm trying…" Kevin barely replied, trying his best to keep his vomit contained.

"Tony, what the hell are you doing?!" Felicia questioned. "Get yourself back to the controls or else-"

Before Felicia could finish talking, the ship suddenly started to take massive nosedive towards the moon's surface due to Tony letting go of the controls. This caused all three of them to fall towards the front of the ship as it eventually fell and crashed towards the ground. When that happened, Kevin could no longer hold back the vomit that he was containing and finally let it all out. Unfortunately for Tony and Felicia however, Kevin's vomit ended up getting on them, disgusting them both greatly.

_Simulation Over, Simulation Over_

As a computerized voice started repeating those words over an intercom, the three cadets sudden felt the ship automatically place itself upright. Once it finished doing that, the doors opened and all of them saw a middle aged man, wearing a grey and black uniform, staring at them with a stern expression on his face. He was Commander Iverson, one of the Garrison's top officers and head instructor of the cadet program. Behind him was a large group of Garrison cadets, all of whom were wearing a standard orange and white uniform.

Upon seeing all of them, Tony, Kevin, and Felicia immediately realized that they were in trouble and slowly made their way out the simulator. They then stood side-by-side as they watched Iverson slowly walk back and forth, not taking his eyes off each of them. Once he finally stopped however, the Commander turned his attention towards the rest of the cadets.

"Now," He started off. "Can someone please tell me what these three did wrong?"

Almost immediately, nearly all of the cadets raised their hands at the same time, each of them eager to point out several of the trio's faults. Eventually, Iverson spotted a female cadet in the front and decided to choose her.

"Sir," The cadet began. "To start off, Cadet Martinelli was acting completely out of line and not focusing on the task at hand. Secondly, Cadet Peterson was too wrapped up in his fear that he wasn't able to respond in time and activate the landing system. And finally, Cadet Daniels decided it would be better to argue with her crewmates than to help calm down the already faltering situation."

"Excellent observation, Cadet." Commander Iverson responded with a nod. He then turned his focus back towards Tony and the others. "She's exactly right. I don't know what it is about you three, but you seem completely incapable of working together. What do you think would happen to you if that wasn't a simulation? Huh? All three of you would be dead…and you would have no one to blame but yourselves!"

After Iverson lay into them like that, Kevin cringed his face and started to look down in disappointment. Tony also felt pretty bad about what happened, although he tried his best not to show it while everyone else was looking at him. As for Felicia however, the young woman didn't really seem to care at all and simply looked on with an indifferent look on her face. Iverson noticed this sign of disrespect, but decided to let it slide as he continued his speech.

"Here at the Galaxy Garrison, it's my duty to train the next generation of space explorers. But I can't do that if none of you are willing to work together. Do you want to end up like Kerberos crew?! It's was because of their lack of unity that all of them died on that mission!"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

Immediately, Iverson turned his head towards Felicia as she was the one who just spoke out of turn. She was looking at him with an angry expression on her face, obviously upset about what he just said. He was about to make his way over to her, but stopped when he saw Tony quickly make his way over to Felicia and proceeded to cover her mouth.

"We understand completely, sir!" He said while putting a fake smile. "I promise that my team and I will do much better."

As Iverson gave Tony a stern look, Felicia was busy trying to get the latter's hand off of her mouth. Unfortunately, Tony refused to let go as he had no desire to get into any further trouble to her anger. Eventually, Iverson made his way over to Tony as he said the following to him.

"Don't get any wrong ideas, Martinelli. You may be talented, but the only reason you're even here is because the best pilot in your class was expelled due to disciplinary problems. Don't ever forget that."

Although a bit shocked after listening to that, Tony managed to keep his composure and silently nodded his head in response. At the same time, Felicia finally managed to calm down somewhat, prompting her crewmate to finally let her go. As for Kevin, the young cadet simply kept quiet as he watched what was going on. When Iverson turned his attention towards him, he attempted to keep calm, but failed miserably at it. Just seeing that caused the Commander to let out a sigh before turning away from him.

"Alright people," Iverson said, turning his focus back towards the rest of the cadets. "That'll be all for today. Remember, your final exam is at the end of week. Now, I have no doubts that all of you will successfully pass. However, for those you who do happen to fail, well…you might want look into a different career path. Until then…Dismissed!"

"Yes sir!"

With that said, all the cadets saluted Commander Iverson before leaving the room and heading back towards their quarters. Before Iverson left too he turned around and faced Tony, Kevin, and Felicia, still standing in front of the simulator. Just looking at them caused him to let out another sigh before finally exiting the room, leaving the 3 cadets all alone in the room.

As they all stood in front of the simulator, contemplating on what they should do, Felicia silently gritted her teeth before turning around and heading back towards her quarters. This was shortly followed by Kevin, who wanted to wash up and get the vomit off of his clothes. This left Tony the only one left inside the room and his attention was still fixed in front of the simulator.

While continuing to stare at it, the young man started clinching his fist in frustration as he remembered what Iverson told him earlier. Although he didn't want to admit it, Tony was well aware that his position in the class was only given to him due to another student's failure. To make things even worse, despite how hard he's work to improve his piloting skills, it was still apparent that his abilities still paled in comparison to his predecessor. That realization angered Tony a great deal and it motivated him to continue improving his skills so that he could finally prove Iverson wrong.

To that end, Tony climbed back into the simulator after making sure no one was watching him. Once he was back inside, the young cadet activated it and placed it on its hardest setting. Once he did that, he began his training, all the while thinking of one thing.

"This isn't the end. I refuse to be you're number 2…Sasuke!"

* * *

"_Lights Out! It's time for Lights Out! All cadets must return to their rooms immediately. Repeat, all cadets must return to their rooms immediately."_

As the announcement continued to relay all throughout the Garrison, all the cadets proceeded to head back to their respective rooms and get ready for bed. However, while that was going on, 2 cadets decided to disobey the rules and sneak out. These students were none other than Tony and Kevin, who were both standing behind a nearby wall so that they wouldn't be seen by anyone else. Once it was sure that no one was in the hallway, the two boys made their way through into another section of the Garrison.

"Tony, what are we doing out here?" Kevin said nervously. "You know we're not allowed after dark. If anyone sees us we can get expelled."

"So what man," Tony replied. "If we don't manage to pass our Final then we're kicked out anyway. Now c'mon, we need to head back to the simulator and redo that practice mission."

After taking Kevin by the arm, Tony proceeded to drag his teammate through the halls of the Garrison as they two of them continued on their way to the simulation room. With each step they took, Kevin was becoming more and more nervous as he really didn't want to be caught by his superiors. Unfortunately, the young man had no way of overcoming Tony's determination and thus had no choice but to go along with him.

Eventually, the two cadets finally made their way back to the simulator room and prepared to head inside. However, just as Tony was about to open the door, Kevin noticed that someone was coming and quickly pulled Tony back so that they wouldn't be seen. The boys then glanced back and were a bit surprised by who they saw.

"What the hell…?" Tony said. "Felicia…?"

Much to the boys surprised, the person who was walking down the hallway was indeed their teammate, Felecia Daniels. In her hand was both her laptop and headset and she proceeded to make her way towards and exit out a window. Then, after making sure that no one was following her, Felecia began climbing up a ladder, making her way towards the roof of the Garrison. Once she was gone, Tony and Kevin moved away from their hiding spot and began walking towards the window that Felecia exited out of.

"Where do you think she's going?" Kevin wondered.

"Don't know…But let's find out."

Without a moment's hesitation, Tony opened the window, exited out of the building and began making his way up the ladder as well. Now all alone, Kevin was contemplating on whether or not he should follow after them or simply head back to his room. However, before he could make a decision, the young man heard something coming from behind him and feared it could be one of his superiors. Because of that, Kevin also exited out the window and raced up the ladder as well.

Once the two boys finally made it to the top, they watched as Felecia was busy typing on her laptop while listening to something on her headset. From what they could tell, Felecia seemed to be really invested in what she was doing and didn't want to be disturbed. Because of that, Kevin contemplated heading back down and leaving her to her business. Unfortunately, Tony didn't feel the same way and thus began making his way towards Felecia, much to Kevin's worry.

Upon getting close enough, Tony down at Felecia's laptop and saw that she was looking at some kind of radio signal. Not only that, but she was also taking the time to glance at a report from a year ago that details the Kerberos mission. Seeing all of that caught the young man's interest, prompting him to question his teammate about it.

"So…" He said as he knelt down beside her. "Whatcha doin?"

At first, Felecia seemed too invested in her work to really notice that Tony was right next to her. However, as she reached down to grab a cup of water that she had with her, the young woman finally noticed him and immediately jump back from fright, causing her to nearly drop of laptop. Once she made sure that it was secure, Felecia angrily glared at Tony as she turned to face him.

"What the hell, you moron!" She angrily said to him. "What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I could say the same thing to you," Tony countered. "What brings you out here so late at night?"

As she continued to glare at Tony, Felecia glanced over to the side for a second and saw that Kevin was out with them too. It was clear to her that the two of them was up to something, but she really didn't care what it was. Because of that, Felecia turned her attention back towards her laptop and got back to work.

"What I do is none of your business. Now leave me alone, I don't want to be bothered with you two right now."

Tony watched as Felecia went back to work, still looking at those radio signals. As he did so, he noticed that whenever she glanced back at the report about the Kerberos mission, Felecia would get more and more irritated. This caused him to remember how angry she got when Commander Iverson mentioned the mission earlier today during class. Just thinking about that made Tony wonder about something that's been on her mind for while.

"So…what is it with you about the Kerberos mission? I mean, every time someone mentions it you get all defensive and angry. Just what is your deal, Felecia?"

Felecia glared at Tony again, clearly annoyed that he was still here and continuing to bother her. For a moment, she wanted to punch him in the face so that she would just leave her alone, but she decided against it. In the end, the young woman decided to just tell him, if only so that he would finally leave her be.

"…Fine," She said. "Do you know what the reports say about what happened of Kerberos?"

"Uh…yeah," Tony replied. "They say that the ship crashed due to a pilot error. What about it?"

"That's just it. The ship didn't crash because of a pilot error. The Garrison just covered it up in order to hide what really happened."

Somewhat surprised by what they just heard, Tony and Kevin looked at one another with a confused look on their face before turning back towards Felecia.

"Hide what…?" Kevin pondered.

"Ever since the incident on Kerberos, I've been suspecting that something wasn't quite right about what happened." Felecia explained as she began typing on her laptop again. "The crew on the ship were simply too skilled to go down just because of a simple pilot error. So I've been using my equipment to scan the system around Kerberos…and I've picked up alien radio chatter."

For a moment, the two boys remained silent as they began to comprehend what Felecia just said to the two of them. When the moment passed, Kevin looked like he was about to have a massive panic attack while Tony simply looked on at Felecia with a skeptical look on his face.

"Aliens…?" Kevin said nervously. "Wait…are you saying that aliens exist?"

"…You know Felecia, I've thought you were a bit strange," Tony said in lofty tone of voice. "But now I think you've gone crazy. Aliens…really?!"

"I'm serious!"

Typing a few more keys on her laptop, Felecia showed Tony several different radio charts that she's managed to collect or the last several months. Every chart showed that the signals that she's been tracking have been growing stronger and stronger with each passing month.

"I don't have all the details yet, but I know for a fact that aliens were responsible for what happened a year ago…and Garrison covered it up in order to save face!" Felecia then pressed one more key on her laptop, filling the screen with just one word in capital letters. "Not only that, but in all the signals I've recorded, the aliens keep repeating one word…Voltron."

As Tony continued to look on with skepticism, Kevin was becoming more and more freaked out by what he was hearing. Although it was common knowledge that the Galaxy Garrison's goal was to see what lies beyond the stars, the young cadet never once believed that aliens exactly existed. Just thinking about it made enter into a cold sweat, causing him to grab Felecia laptop and examine her data more thoroughly.

"So where are the aliens?" He pondered. "Are they coming right now? When will they be here?"

While Kevin continuing examining the laptop, Tony simply started shaking his head in disbelief. Not only has Felecia completely lost her mind, but Kevin has too. Things were getting out of hand. Eventually, just as Felecia managed to take back her laptop.

"I don't know if they're coming or not," The young woman said. "But the signals I've been picking up are the strongest I've ever seen."

"Oh come on, you two!" Tony said angrily. "What you're saying is complete bulls-"

Just before he could finish that statement, Tony was silenced when he heard a loud alarm echo throughout the entire Garrison base. Right away, the young man recognized it as emergency alarm and that it's only to be sounded when something serious is about to happen. As he wondered what that something was, he and his teammates listened as Commander Iverson started talking over the loudspeaker.

"_Attention all Cadets! We are in Lockdown, Security Situation; Code Red! Repeat, we are in Lockdown! All Cadets are to remain in the rooms until further notice!"_

After the announcement came to an end, Tony and the rest looked down from the roof and saw several Garrison personnel racing towards different locations throughout the facility. It was clear to all of them that something was going on, but they had no idea what. However, that soon began to change when Kevin looked up after noticing something from the corner of his eye.

"What the heck is that?!" He exclaimed.

When Felecia and Tony looked up as well, the two of them were stunned as something was falling down from the sky, heading right for them. At first glance, it seemed like the object was a fairly large meteor, but Felecia noticed that something seemed off about it. Because of that, she quickly grabbed a pair of binoculars that she had on ear and started looking through them.

"…Oh my god. It's a ship!"

"A ship?!" Tony questioned before rudely taking the binoculars away from Felecia. "Let me see!"

Upon looking through the binoculars, Tony was stunned as the falling object was indeed a ship. However, through closer inspection, he noticed that didn't have any familiar marking that were common for those made here at the Garrison. This immediately made him realize one thing.

"That ship not one of ours…"

"…No," Felecia continued. "It's one of theirs."

As the three cadets continued to look on, all of them watched at the ship flew past the Garrison base and crashed somewhere close by in the canyon. Immediately afterwards, several Garrison officers got into specialized rovers and began making their way over to the crash site. When she saw them do that, Felecia immediately put all of things into her bag and began to follow after them.

"I've got to see that ship!" She said to herself.

"Hang on!" Tony said as he followed after her. "I'm coming with you!"

After they both made their way down the same ladder that they came up on, Tony and Felecia quickly headed towards the crash site, trying their best to avoid being caught by the officers. This left Kevin all alone on the roof.

A large part of him wanted to ignore all of this and simply head back to his room like he was suppose too. At the same time however, Kevin couldn't bring himself to head back while his teammates were still out doing their own thing. Not only that, but the young man couldn't help but wonder about that ship too. Even if thought that it could really belong to aliens scared him out of his mind. So, against his better judgment, he reluctantly decided to follow after his teammates.

"Oh…I just have a bad feeling about this!"

Soon, shortly after Kevin finally managed to catch up with Tony and Felecia, the three cadets stationed themselves on top of a small mountain, one that far enough to avoid being seen, but also close enough to get a good look of things. They then looked on as several Security and Science officers were busy examining the fallen ship, trying to make sense of what they were looking at. Seeing all of this, prompted Felecia to pull her equipment back out, hoping that they would give her a better understanding of what they were all seeing.

Eventually, as the several groups continued to look on, they were all stunned when they saw the hood of the ship suddenly opened by itself. Not only that, but they also watched as someone, or something, was beginning to slowly walk out of it. At first glance, everyone assumed that it might be an alien, prompting Tony immediately grabbed Felecia's binoculars in order to see if it really was one. However, upon closer inspection, the young cadet was even more shocked by what he really saw.

The individual who exited the ship was human who seemed to be in his twenties. He had messy blonde hair and a fairly grizzled face, so it was clear that he hasn't tended to himself for a while. Not only that, but was also had a long diagonal scar over his left eye and was wearing a set of grey and black clothes that were visibly ripped up. Although he couldn't believe it at first, Tony immediately recognized the person he was looking at, someone he thought was dead.

"It's…Marcus Robinson."

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_Somehow, Someway, Marcus Robinson has made it back to Earth after being missing in space for over a year. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Garrison isn't exactly ready to welcome him with open arms and has him locked up in Quarantine. Tony and his team are willing to save him, especially when they overhear something regarding the mysterious object known as Voltron._

_Just what is Voltron and how will Tony and other manage to rescue Marcus? Perhaps the arrival of an unknown party may provide all the answers._

_Next Time, Chapter 2: Beginnings – Part 2_

* * *

_**Announcements**_

**Spirit Reader: **_Hey guys, this is Spirit Reader, welcoming all of you to the newest story on my channel; Voltron – Universal Defender. This is the first story I'm actively collaborating with my good friend, Serpentdragon. Although he doesn't have a story of his own, Serpentdragon has been working and supporting me for years now on the various stories that I've been working on. So, when he came to me about working with him on this project, I figured that this would be a good opportunity to pay him back. It's my wish that this story of ours will be lots of fun for all of you as it is for us._

_Well, that's it for now. Until next time, this is Spirit Reader signing off!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 2**: _Beginnings – Part 2_

* * *

"Wait! Please, you have to listen to me! There isn't much time, we have to hurry before it's too late!"

Those were the pleas of Lieutenant Marcus Robinson, as he lay strapped to a table in one of the Garrison quarantined facilities. Having somehow returned to Earth after spending over a year lost in space, Marcus had experienced things that no man should have too. As a result of what he went through and what he learned, the young man was determined to inform his allies of what he went through after the Kerberos incident. Unfortunately for Marcus, the officers at the Galaxy Garrison had other ideas.

Although Marcus's return to Earth was shocking, what shocked the Garrison even more was the way he returned to Earth. The ship that he crashed in was not one of theirs. As a matter of fact, the ship was of a design that has never been recorded before. That one finding made them all come to the same conclusion. There really is life outside of Earth.

The discovery of alien life has been one of the major goals of the Galaxy Garrison ever since its creation. One would think it would be a monumentous occasion, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The Kerberos incident was one of the most tragic days in the history of the Galaxy Garrison, one they thought had occurred due to a pilot error. However, now that there's proof of alien life, it was clear that they were responsible for what happened and, as a result of that, things have become much more complicated.

More information was needed in order to figure out what to do next. To that end, the first thing that the Garrison officers did after discovering Marcus was immediately bring over to quarantine. Even though the Lieutenant was insistent that he speak with the higher ups, Marcus's request was ultimately denied. He had the answers that they needed and they were going to get it out of him, one way or another.

While all of this was going on, Tony, Felicia, and Kevin were all observing the situation from the outside, stationed on a small cliff. The three of them were intrigued by what was going on and decided to check it out, despite the fact they were ordered to stay inside. By using her advanced computer skills, Felicia was able to hack into the security feed, allowing her and teammates to get a good look inside. They then watched as Marcus continued to struggle free of his restraints, just as some Garrison officers and doctors entered the room.

"What are they doing?" Tony questioned as he looked on. "That's Marcus Robinson they have tied up there! Aren't they even going to hear him out?"

"Will you shut up?!" Felecia responded. "I'm trying to listen here."

Tony angrily glanced at Felecia for an instant, clearly annoyed that she was being nonchalant about this whole situation. However, he quickly got over it and soon turned his attention back towards the computer screen. As he and the others looked on, they watched as the Garrison doctors were busy examining Marcus's body. For the most part he seemed to be fine, with the exception of him being slightly worn out due to his time in space. However, they were soon taken aback by one thing.

"Look! His arm…It's mechanical…"

As all the doctors closed in on Marcus, their eyes all focused on the mechanical arm that had replaced the young man's right arm. Right away, all of them could determine that it was made of a technology that wasn't found on Earth. Because of that, they started to examine the arm, trying to see how it worked and what functions it had.

"This is incredible," One doctor said, as he examined the arm through a touchpad. "The energy coming off this arm is off the charts."

"What are you doing?! We don't have time for this! We have to hurry before it's too late!"

Annoyed by what was happening, Marcus angrily snapped at the doctors as he once again attempted to break free from his restraints. As he struggled, the doctors were taken aback when they saw his robotic arm start to glow a bright purple color in response to his outburst. Realizing that the arm was somehow linked to his emotions, the doctors attempted to calm Marcus down.

"Please Marcus, you have to calm down!" One of the doctors told him.

"Yes, please restrain yourself!" Another followed. "We're just trying to determine what happened to you while you were gone."

"There is no time for that!" Marcus's armed started glowing even brighter as he shouted at the doctors. "They are coming and they won't stop until everyone is dead! We have to find it before it's too late! We have to find Voltron!"

Upon hearing Marcus say the word Voltron, Tony, Felicia, and Kevin were immediately taken aback. The three of them just had a discussion about it in which the signals that Felicia was receiving early kept repeating the one word. Hearing Marcus scream about finding it not only proved that this mysterious thing exists, but also that whoever was sending out those signals was searching for it too. This turn of events greatly intrigued the Garrison Cadets, but also caused the Garrison officials to become paranoid.

To them, Marcus's words only served to frighten and confused them. Everything was going too fast and they needed time to process everything first. To that end, all of the doctors in the room nodded at one another before two of them walked over and held Marcus down. As they tried their best to keep him still, another doctor walked over and proceeded to grab syringe that was on a nearby desk. He then filled it with a yellow liquid before walking back over to Marcus.

"Hold him down," He told the others. "We need to put him under before he does anything drastic."

"What?!" Marcus shouted in shock. "No! Don't put me under! Please, you have to listen to me!"

Using all of his strength, Marcus once again tried to free himself from his restraints. As he did so, his robotic arm responded to his intense emotions and began glowing even brighter than before. When they saw this, the doctors realized that they were running out of time and held the Lieutenant down even harder. Eventually, the doctor holding the syringe was able to inject the medicine into Marcus, who quickly became drowsy due to its effects. After a few more seconds, he fell asleep, causing his arm to stop glowing and return to normal.

Upon seeing Marcus being forcibly put to sleep, Tony's anger quickly started to boil. Although he never met him personally, the young cadet held a great respect for Marcus. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons why he wanted to be pilot in the first place was because he wanted to be just like Marcus, who he considered to be his hero. Because of that, Tony knew that he had to do something.

"We got to help me!" He cried out.

"How are we suppose to do that?!" Kevin inquired. "If we go down there, we're likely to get caught…and if we caught we'll be expelled from the Garrison!"

"I don't know! All I do know is that we have to do something! Now…if only we had some kind of distraction."

Suddenly, as if on cue, a loud explosion occurred near one of the buildings. When it happened, not only did all the cadets instantly turn their attention towards it, but they also watched as several Garrison officers immediately started racing towards it. Just as they did that however, several more explosions occurred, resulting in even more officers to head and see what exactly was going on.

"What the heck is this?!" Kevin questioned, covering his ears due to all the loud noises. "Where are all these explosions coming from?!"

"That's what I'm trying figure out!" Using her computer, Felecia scanned the area for anyone or anything suspicious. After a few seconds, she spotted something. "Hey…isn't that…"

Tony and Kevin looked at Felecia's laptop and noticed that someone was making their way towards the building where Marcus was being held, using the shadows to hide. At first glance, this individual seemed unrecognizable to the group, which prompted Tony pull out some binoculars and get a closer look. Once he did so, the young man suddenly found himself frowning.

"Oh no…Not him,"

Back inside the quarantined facility, the doctors were all trying to figure out what was going on outside. The officers that were inside with them suddenly left in order to see what was happening, but they haven't come back yet. This worried the doctors greatly and, as they started to hear noises coming from inside the facility, their worries only became greater.

Eventually, after about 2 minutes, the noises that all the doctors were hearing suddenly stopped. For a moment, they all assumed that the silence meant that whatever was happening was finally over. However, that wasn't the case at all as they all watched as two unconscious security guards were suddenly thrown into the room, slamming into the back wall. As they went to check up on them, the doctors watched as a young masked individual made his way into the room.

"Who…Who are you?" One of the doctors questioned.

The masked individual didn't answer the doctor's question. All he did do was assume a fighting position, showing all of them that he had no intention of talking. When they saw that, the doctors immediately realized that they were in trouble and attempted to subdue the intruder before he had the opportunity to do the same to them. Unfortunately, despite the fact that they had the numbers advantage over him, the masked individual was simply too strong.

With only a few swift moves, the individual easily knocked out all of the doctors. He then made his way over to the unconscious Marcus, taking a moment to properly examine his face. Once he determined the he was indeed Marcus Robinson, the individual quickly removed his mask, revealing that he a young man of Japanese decent with black hair and dark eyes. He then went on to release Marcus from his restraints.

"Oh no, you don't! You're not going to show me up again, Sasuke!"

Upon hearing someone call out his name, the young man turned around and saw Tony, Kevin, and Felecia all looking at him from the front entrance. Out of the three of them, Tony appeared to be annoyed by his presence and he immediately began making his way over to him. He then began to remove the remaining restraints off of Marcus before carrying him over his shoulder.

"If anyone is saving Marcus, it's going to be me!"

"Um…And who are you exactly?" Sasuke questioned as he placed Marcus's other arm over his shoulder. "Do I know you?"

Tony's irritation quickly began to over take him after hearing Sasuke say that to him. Ever since he first enrolled in the Garrison, Tony aspired to be the best pilot there is. Unfortunately, despite being talented, his skills paled in comparison to Sasuke, who was in the same class as him. Even after Sasuke was expelled from the Cadet program due to disciplinary problems, Tony still couldn't get out of his shadow as his teachers, especially Commander Iverson, would still see him as the lesser of the two. Hearing all that angered Tony a great deal, ultimately inspiring him to ultimately surpass Sasuke and finally prove his worth.

"What are you talking about?!" Tony replied. "It's me…Antonio Martinelli. We were the top 2 pilots in the Cadet program. How could you have possibly forgotten?!"

Sasuke remained silent as he took a moment to try and recall Tony. It's been about 6 months since he was first expelled and during that time he's quickly forgotten about most of the students that he was working with. It took him about a minute, but he finally remembered something about him.

"Oh yeah…You were that cargo pilot who always crashed."

"It wasn't always!" Tony snapped. "And for your information, I'm a fighter pilot now…Thanks to you washing out."

"…Good for you."

It was clear from this short conversation that Sasuke couldn't care less about who Tony was or the fact that he took his place at the Garrison. All that mattered to him right now was getting Marcus out of here before any more guards showed up. To that end he promptly shook Marcus off of Tony's shoulder and began making his way out the building, walking past both Kevin and Felecia in the process.

Once he made it outside, Sasuke then began making his way over to his red and yellow hovercraft. After making sure that Marcus was on and secure, the former cadet hopped on and prepared to head out. Just as he was about to do so however, he suddenly felt something get on the back of his ride. When he turned his head he saw that not only was Tony on too, but also Kevin and Felecia.

"What are you all doing?!" He questioned angrily.

"I'm sorry, but can we catch a ride with you?" Kevin nervously asked.

Right away, Sasuke wanted to say no and demand that they get off. Unfortunately, he simply didn't have enough time. He noticed several Garrison officers making their way to this location and he couldn't afford to get caught. So, much to his annoyance, the young man simply put up with it and started up his hovercraft. He then drove off as quickly as he could as the others tried their best to themselves from falling off.

Immediately after they started driving away, the group noticed that several officers were given chase on their rovers. Thanks to his superior piloting skills, Sasuke was able to evade them, but they simply kept on coming. While all this was happening, Tony and the others were trying their best to stay on board. This was especially difficult for Felecia, who found herself trying to hold on to the sleeping Marcus as he kept backing into her.

"Ow!…Ow!" She cried as Marcus bumped into her twice. "Damn it! Why am I holding this guy?!"

"Don't ask me!" Kevin said. "I'm having my…own problems!"

Due to Sasuke's constant swerving, Kevin's nausea quickly started to get the better of him and was just about to vomit on the hovercraft. However, just as he was about to do so, Sasuke once again made a sharp turn, causing Kevin to swallow his vomit instead, disgusting him greatly.

Eventually, as the chase continued, Sasuke realized that this game of cat and mouse wasn't getting anywhere. If he wanted to get away he would need to do something drastic. Fortunately for him, he found just a way to do that and began speeding up as a result. Upon noticing the sudden burst of speed, Tony started to wonder what he was planning. To his shock and mild horror, Tony realized what it was after seeing a large cliff in the distance.

"Wait…No!" He said in disbelief. "Are you crazy?!"

"…Yup."

With a confident smile on his face, Sasuke began picking up some more speed as he continued making his way towards the edge of the cliff. When Felecia and Kevin also saw it, the two of them immediately realized what was going on and tried their best to convince Sasuke not to go through with it. Unfortunately, their pleas fell on deaf ears as Sasuke drove his hovercraft over the cliff. The mere sight of that caused the two Garrison rovers that were chasing after them to stop just before they fell off the cliff as well.

As they began making their way towards the ground, Tony and the others started screaming frantically as they believed they were about to die. However, as he braced himself, Sasuke simply glanced over towards Marcus for a moment. As he looked at him, the young man remembered something that he was told before. Those words filled him with confidence as he turned his head forward and prepared to make his move.

"Patience…yields Focus."

At the very instant the hovercraft was about to crash nose first into the ground, Sasuke skillfully pressed down on the brake and leaned back as far as he could. This caused the craft to straighten out, allowing it to safely land and continue driving off. Once he saw that he was in the clear, Sasuke began making his way towards the one place he knew they would be safe. He began making his way home.

* * *

_You have to hurry and return to Earth! You must find Voltron! It's the universe's only hope!_

Those were the words that ran through Marcus's head as he stared out into the vast distance. After being rescued by Sasuke and the others, Marcus spent most the night recuperating from his ordeal. Once he started to feel better, the young man decided to go out and get some air, wanting to reflect on everything that happened to him so far. Unfortunately for him though, the only thing that Marcus managed to do while he was thinking is suffer a bad headache.

During the year in which he was enslaved, Marcus went through many terrible ordeals. If it wasn't for his strong will, Marcus knew that he would've been broken. However, his eventual escape didn't come without cost. Not only did he lose his arm, but the experiences he went through caused him to lose a good portion of his memory. The only thing that he was able to recall was something called Voltron, and that it was imperative that he find it.

While Marcus continued to think to himself, Sasuke was busy observing him from a distance. The two of them were very good friends. Not only that, but Marcus was the one of few people that Sasuke truly respected. He only decided to join the Galaxy Garrison because Marcus saw great potential in him, potential that even Sasuke wasn't even aware of. Because of that, Sasuke tried to live up to that potential, which eventually lead him to become the best in his class.

When it was revealed that the crew of the Kerberos mission had perished due to a pilot error, Sasuke immediately denied those claims. He knew firsthand how skilled a pilot Marcus was and suspected that something else had happened. Unfortunately, no one wanted to believe him, angering the young man a great deal. It was due to his anger that eventually led to his expulsion from the Garrison, but that didn't stop Sasuke. He was determined to find out what really happened on Kerberos and thus he spent the last year gathering any information that he could find.

Now that Marcus was back on Earth, Sasuke was glad to have his friend back. Although he was a bit reluctant to question him about what he experienced out there, Sasuke hoped that talking about it would help Marcus somewhat. With that, he made his way out to him and proceeded to stand by his side.

"It's good to have you back, Marcus," He said as he gently placed his hand upon his shoulder.

"…It's good to be back," Marcus replied as he turned to face Sasuke.

Despite the fact that he was gone for a year, Marcus was glad to see that Sasuke was doing well. He was also grateful to him for breaking him out of quarantine. Even though he was expelled, it was clear that his skills hadn't suffered so that was good to know.

"So…what happened out there?" Sasuke questioned. "Where were you?"

"I wish I could tell you…" Marcus placed his hand upon his face, trying in vain to recall anything. "It's all just a blur. I was on some kind of alien ship…and somehow I escaped. That's all I know. But…what about you? How'd you know to come and save me when I crashed?"

As Marcus turned to face Sasuke again, the young man was trying to figure out how to best answer that question. It would sound pretty ridiculous, but Sasuke realized that this whole situation also sounded ridiculous. So, the only thing he could do is tell the truth.

"…Come with me."

Upon making their way towards Sasuke's log cabin home, both he and Marcus went inside and made their way towards the living room. Inside the room were Tony and the others, who all decided to stay the night here instead of returning to Garrison and facing punishment for breaking the rules. Once everyone was in the room, Sasuke made his way over a poster board that was covered in cloth. Upon removing the cloth, the others were all quite surprised by what they saw.

The board was completely covered with various things, ranging from maps, pictures, to even graphs. They were marked with random details that didn't seem to make any sense at first glance.

"What have you been working on?" Marcus questioned.

"I…can't really explain," Sasuke answered. "Shortly after you went missing, and I was expelled from the Garrison, I was kinda…lost. I found myself drawn to this place. It was like something…some kind of energy was telling me to search."

"…For what?"

Sasuke paused for a moment as he didn't really know how to answer. In fact, the young man barely knew what he was even talking about. All he did do was make his way towards the map that was on the board. He then pointed towards a large circle that had the words 'Energy Source' written in the middle. The circle also had various small circles inside it too, and they each had colored lines that lead to different sections on the map.

"I didn't really know at the time…until I stumbled upon this area. It's an outcropping of giant boulders with caves, covered in ancient markings. From what I was able decipher, the markings each tell a different story about a blue lion. But they all share clues leading to some kind of event…Some arrival happening last night. Then you showed up. I figured it couldn't be a coincidence."

Marcus was a bit stunned by the amount of work that Sasuke went through following his disappearance. All this information seemed to be completely out of this world, but given everything that's happened, it almost made sense in hindsight. The only question now is how this could be used to help him find the mysterious Voltron.

While pondering about this for a moment, Marcus looked back and noticed Tony and the others. The three of them seemed completely lost by what was going on, especially Kevin who was freaking out a bit. Seeing them reminded Marcus that they too had a hand in his escape from the Garrison. Because, he promptly made his way up them and extended out his hand.

"I never had the chance to thank you for saving me," He said to them. "I really appreciate it."

Tony was the first to reach out to Marcus, but stopped himself for a moment. The young man was caught off guard a bit by his hero's robotic hand. Despite that however, Tony still held a deep respect for Marcus and knew that he could be trusted. Because of that, he gave him the firmest handshake he could.

"It's not a problem," He replied with a small smile. "The name's Antonio Martinelli…but you can call me Tony. It's an honor to meet you, sir."

Marcus happily nodded at Tony before releasing his grip. He then turned to face both Kevin and Felecia and extended his hand out to them as well. Like Tony, the two of them were a bit taken aback by the robotic hand, but they each gradually got over it and shook it.

"The nervous one is Kevin Peterson," Felecia pointed out. "I'm Felecia Daniels. So…did anyone else from crew happen to make it out too?"

Upon hearing Felecia's question, Marcus tried his best to recall what happened to the rest of his crew before they were captured. Unfortunately, despite trying his best, nothing seemed to come up.

"I'm not…really sure," He answered. "I remember the mission to Kerberos…and that we were captured. After that…nothing. It's all just bits and pieces to me."

Felecia was a bit disappointed upon hearing Marcus say that he couldn't recall what happened to the rest of the Kerberos crew. One of the reasons why she went out the way to help him was because she wanted to know what really happened that day. Before she could question him further however, Kevin suddenly stepped up with his own questions.

"Sorry to interrupt, but what about the aliens. Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they already here? I mean, where are they at this very moment?"

Tony and Felecia attempted to calm Kevin down before he bombarded Marcus with any more questions. The two of them knew that he was a bit of a coward, but having him this afraid wasn't going to help anybody. Fortunately, Marcus was very understanding to Kevin's feelings and tried his best to answer his questions as best as he could.

"As I said, I can't really put it together," He explained. "I remembered the word Voltron. I think it's some kind of super weapon they're looking for…but I don't know why. But I do remember one thing before I escaped…I'm supposed to get it before they do."

Upon hearing the word Voltron again, Kevin and his teammates were a bit stunned. It seemed like everything that was happening was related to it in some way. While trying to figure out how it can all be connected, Kevin suddenly realized something important. This prompted him to grab Felecia's backpack, much to her shock and annoyance, and pull out a small purple book. When she saw it, the young woman's eyes suddenly lit up in horror.

"What the hell are you doing with my diary?!" She angrily inquired. "As a matter of fact, what the hell were you doing going through my stuff?!"

"Well…I was actually looking for a snack," Kevin truthfully revealed. "As I was doing that, I accidentally knocked open your diary and saw a repeating series of numbers. When I looked through it, I noticed that it looked similar to a Fraunhofer Line."

"A…what line?" Sasuke pondered.

"A Fraunhofer Line," Kevin repeated. "It's number describing the emission spectrum of an element. Only…this element doesn't exist on Earth."

Much to Felecia's continued annoyance, Kevin flipped through the pages of the diary and revealed to everyone the lines he was talking about.

"I didn't know what it was at first, but it may be this Voltron thing. Using this data, I might be able to build a device to locate it. Almost like a…Voltron Detector."

"That's amazing Kevin!" Tony said, happily praising his friend.

"Thank you. It's actually quite fascinating really. The wavelength looks similar to this."

After giving Felecia back her diary, Kevin grabbed a pencil on a nearby desk and began drawing on a piece of paper. Using his photographic memory, the young man was able to quickly draw a graph and reveal it to the others. To Marcus and Tony, the graph didn't seem to be all that special. But, upon closer inspection, Sasuke noticed something very familiar about it.

"Let me see that!"

Taking the graph, Sasuke made his way over to the poster bored and placed it over a picture of a canyon. As the others looked on, Sasuke began comparing the two and quickly noticed something. The wavelength of the Fraunhofer Line looked very similar to the overall outline of the canyon itself. Just looking at that caused the young man to come to a sudden conclusion.

"It's there…"

* * *

Following a quick breakfast and changing into a nice set of clothes, Sasuke lead Marcus and the others to the location where the Fraunhofer Line matched up. As they made their way over there, Kevin was busy building a makeshift detector that was connected to Felecia's backpack. When they finally arrived, the group took a moment to marvel at the landscape before Kevin began to pick up some readings on his detector.

"I've got something," He pointed out. "It's due north."

Kevin, his eyes moving back and forth from the detector, pressed on towards the canyon as the others followed close behind. As they walked, both Felecia and Tony were quite stunned by what they were seeing. Kevin is usually very timid and is never up to doing anything that might involve some type of danger. To see him take the lead was quite the shock, but they decided not to stop him and just let Kevin continue leading the way.

Eventually, after about another 30 minutes of walking, Kevin noticed that the readings on his detector were going off the charts. He then saw a small cave entrance in one of the mountains. Although he wasn't entirely sure, the young man strongly believed that the source of the signal was inside the cave. As a result, Kevin proceeded to lead the group inside the cave.

Once they were inside, the group stopped and took notice of their surroundings. On the cave walls were several carvings, most likely placed by an ancient people. When he took notice of them, Marcus suddenly remembered what Sasuke explained to him earlier.

"Are these it…?" He inquired.

"Yeah…" Sasuke confirmed. "These are the lion carvings I was talking about."

While the group continued examining the carvings, trying to decipher what they meant and how it can help them in their current situation, Tony noticed that some of them were smeared with dirt. Wanting to see what was hidden, the young man quickly rubbed the dirt away and saw that it was hiding another lion carving. However, just as he finished wiping all the dirt away, something rather astonishing occurred.

From out of nowhere, the carving started glowing a light blue color. Then, just as he was about to tell the others what he saw, the remaining carvings started glowing all throughout out the cave as well.

"Whoa…This is kinda freaky."

"They've never done this before." Sasuke pointed out. "What could have-"

From out of nowhere, just as Sasuke was about to finished his question, the floor underneath the group suddenly began to break apart. They then fell through and started sliding down into another section of the cave. Upon reaching the exit, the group fell into a deeper part of the cave. Tony was the first to recover from the fall and, upon lifting his head, saw something completely out of this world.

"…Holy shit…"

The group all lifted heads and were immediately stunned like Tony was. To their astonishment, a giant mechanical blue lion was standing right in front of them. Not only that, but it was also surrounded by something that resembled some kind of particle barrier. Just looking at it made them all come to the same conclusion about what this blue lion actually is.

"Is…Is this it?" Felecia asked. "Is this the Voltron?"

"It must be…" Marcus assumed.

"This is what must be causing all the crazy energy around here." Sasuke believed.

After taking a few more moments to admire the sight of the lion, the group slowly started making their way towards it. As they did so, most of them were all wondering what it actually was and how long has it been hiding down here. However, for Tony, the young man had something else on his mind. Although he wasn't quite sure at first, Tony was starting to suspect that the lion was staring at him.

"Um…Does anyone else get the feeling that this thing staring at them?" He asked.

"…No," Felecia replied as she rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"You sure? I just…can't shake the feeling that it is."

As Tony continued to ponder whether or not the lion was actually following him, Sasuke was the first to make his way towards it. Unfortunately, the barrier separating him from the lion was blocking his path. Although he attempted to push his way through it, the barrier was simply too strong and wouldn't move an inch.

Once the others finally made their way towards the barrier, Felecia started examining it closely. She then pressed her hand on it and noticed that the barrier seemed to absorb any kinetic energy that it came in contact with. This caused her to ponder how they were going to get inside.

"Let's see…" She said as she pulled out her laptop. "How are we going to get through this thing?"

"…Maybe we should knock."

With an almost flabbergasted look on her face, Felecia watched as Tony started knocking on the barrier. She had already determined that simply forcing their way in wasn't going to work so simply knocking wasn't going to fair any better either. Felecia was about to go over there and force Tony to stop, but something unexpected happened that caused her to stop instead.

From out of nowhere, the eyes of the blue lion started glowing a bright yellow color. This not only caused the barrier to suddenly drop, but also caused some more cave marking to appear just below the lion itself. After that, a mysterious blue energy suddenly envelop the entire cave. As everyone else started to panic, Tony suddenly found himself completely mesmerized as a vision started playing from inside his mind.

In his vision, Tony saw the blue lion fly up into the sky, lined up with several other mechanical lions. As the lions each started glow a different color, Tony witnessed as they suddenly came together until they formed some kind of giant robot. He then watched as the robot summoned a giant sword that was completely enveloped in fire and used it to destroy a large meteor. Once that happened, the vision came to an end and the energy that was enveloping the area disappeared.

"Guys…Please tell me that you just saw that."

The others didn't answer Tony right away as they all were trying to take in what they just witnessed. Like him, they saw the vision as well and were completely stunned by it. It was at that moment that both Kevin and Felecia simultaneously came to the same realization.

"Voltron is a robot!" He declared. "Voltron is a huge, awesome robot!"

"And this thing is only one part of it!" Felecia followed. "I wonder where the rest of them are."

Marcus and Sasuke both reached the same conclusion as the others. At the same time though, the former also came to another realization.

"So this is what their looking for," He said, referring to the aliens that capture him. "Incredible…"

Soon, as the group continued to comprehend what just happened, the blue lion suddenly started to place its head down in front of them. It then opened its mouth, revealing a small catwalk that lead to another section of its body. At first, the group was apprehensive about what the lion was attempting to do. However, as he stared at it, Tony found himself drawn towards the lion and soon made his way up the catwalk.

Upon entering the lion, Tony soon made his way inside a large cockpit. While marveling at the mere sight of it, the young man sat down in the chair that was in the middle. When he did so, the chair suddenly moved up towards the control console. This caused the inside of the cockpit to start glowing and Tony witnessed that the screen in front of him began to display the inside of the cave, meaning he was looking through the eyes of the blue lion itself.

"Awesome…"

As Tony to continued to marvel at what he was seeing, the others soon made their way inside the cockpit as well. Like Tony, they too were amazed by what they were seeing. However, after about a minute, Kevin realized something very important.

"Um guys…" He started off. "You do realize that we're inside some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now."

_Pilot me, Tony!_

Stunned, Tony suddenly started looking around the cockpit. The young man just heard a mysterious talking to him, tell him to pilot it. He then looked towards the others, wondering if they were the ones who just spoke to him.

"Did…Did you guys just say something?"

"…No," Sasuke said, confused by the question.

"But…Who could have said that? Maybe…the lion?

Although unsure by what was happening, Tony decided to press some of the keypads on the dashboard, hoping that doing so would give him some answers. When he did so, the blue lion suddenly sat up on all fours and let out an ear-deafening roar. As the others tried their best to hold their balance, a confident smile soon appeared on Tony's face as he realized what to do next.

"Okay…Now let's try this!"

After placing each hand on a flight stick, Tony pushed them both forward. Once he did so both he and the others suddenly found themselves moving as the lion immediately burst through the ground, making its way to the outside. The mechanical beast then started to use the rockets on each of its paw pads, as well on its sides, to propel itself high into the air. Tony then started to maneuver the lion in various directions, trying his best to get a feel for the controls.

Unfortunately, while this was going on, Marcus and the others were busy being pushed around while inside the cockpit. Although not having a seat for themselves didn't help, the fact remained that Tony's reckless flying was causing all them to feel very airsick. This eventually led Sasuke to declare something to the pilot.

"You…Are the Worst…Pilot…EVER!"

Tony ignored Sasuke's complaint and simply kept on flying. The young man never felt such excitement before in his life. It was an absolute rush and Tony didn't want it to stop anytime soon. However, just as he was about to perform a trick move, he suddenly heard the voice from before speak to him from inside his mind.

_Tony, there is an alien ship approaching the planet. We must intercept it._

After voiced finished speaking, Tony watched as the dashboard in front him started displaying some coordinates. He then looked on as the blue lion started flying even higher in the air. The others quickly noticed this and wondered what was going on.

"Where are you going?!" Sasuke questioned.

"I…I don't know…" Tony answered truthfully. "But the lion said that there's an alien ship approaching Earth. I think it wants us to fight it."

"And how exactly did it tell you?!" Felecia pondered. "And why couldn't we hear it?!"

"I don't know! I think its talking to me from inside my mind!"

Felecia stared at Tony with a look of anger and exasperation on her face. She was a woman of science and everything he was saying completely went against everything she believed. However, Tony didn't really care what she thought of this at the moment. Although he wasn't entirely sure why, he decided to believe in the blue lion. Because of that, he pushed his flight sticks forward, causing the blue lion to fly up even higher.

Eventually, after breaking from the atmosphere, the group now found themselves flying just outside of Earth's orbit. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough time to take in the beauty of their planet. The reason for that is because, just like the blue lion said, a giant alien ship suddenly appeared before them. Upon seeing the ship, a painful memory instantly flashed through Marcus's mind, causing a terrible realization to befall him.

"…They found me."

The two ships stared each other down, not wanting to rush in making the first move. In time though, the alien ship soon started firing several laser beams at the blue lion, causing Tony to act quickly in order to avoid being hit.

"Move, you idiot!" Sasuke demanded.

"I know! I know!" Tony shouted back.

Using everything he knew about piloting, Tony did everything within his power to avoid the oncoming lasers and attempt to create some distance from himself and the ship. While this was going on, Kevin fear and paranoia was quickly getting the better of him again. He didn't like the fact that he and his friends were flying around in a mysterious blue lion, trying their best not to get blasted by an alien warship.

"What are we even doing here?!" He exclaimed. "I mean…If this thing is the weapon they're looking for, then why don't we just give it to them. Maybe they'll just leave us alone if we do."

"…We can't do that, Kevin," Marcus calmly revealed. "You have to understand. These monsters spread like a plague throughout the universe. There's no bargaining or reasoning with them. They won't stop until everyone and everything is dead!"

Upon hearing Marcus say that to him, Kevin's eyes suddenly widen in complete and utter disbelief. The situation just keeps on escalating and it was almost becoming too much for the young man to take. Sadly, things were quickly becoming even worse as Tony's attempts to avoid being blasted were becoming increasingly more difficult. If things continued as they are, he knew that they were going to get killed. To that end, Tony decided to stop running and start fighting.

With great determination, Tony began making his way towards the enemy ship at an incredible speed. Felecia, having remembered all the times Tony has crashed during his tests at the Garrison, was very concerned by what he was doing and attempted to call him out on it.

"Be careful, Tony!" She told him. "This isn't a simulator!"

"…Good! I always wreck those!"

With great determination, Tony continued to dodge the oncoming laser as he got closer to the ship. Then, almost on instinct, he pushed one of the flight sticks forward. This caused the blue lion to open its mouth and unleash a powerful laser blast. It struck the enemy ship, not only dealing it some damage, but also causing it to stop firing as well.

Once the ship finally stopped attacking, Tony then used the claws of the blue lion to damage a portion of its hull. After that, Tony decided to fly off in another direction, hoping that doing so will cause the ship to go after him instead of attacking Earth. To his relief, that's exactly what happened.

"Tony…Where are you taking us?" Marcus questioned.

"I'm not exactly sure…" Tony answered. "But I think its best keep away from Earth for now!"

Marcus was a bit surprised by Tony's reasoning, but immediately understood the cadet's intention. He was absolutely right as the people of Earth were completely outmatched by the power of these alien invaders. Only they, and the mysterious blue lion, stood any kind of chance and so they had to take the fight somewhere else so that the planet could be safe.

Eventually, in what seemed no time at all, the group soon found themselves outside of their Solar System. This was proven when Felecia took a look outside and saw Kerberos nearby. Just seeing that both shocked and impressed her.

"This is crazy. It takes our ships months to get this far…and we got here in just a few seconds."

As Felecia continued to marvel at what she was seeing, the alien ship continued its pursuit of the blue lion. Instead of attacking, the ship now seemed content to simply follow after it. When the group noticed that they quickly realized that something was wrong and that they needed to get away as soon as possible. It was at that moment that another incredible event occurred.

From completely out of nowhere, a giant portal suddenly appeared in front of the blue lion. Surrounding the portal was an ancient language, one that no one in the group was able to recognize. While trying to figure out what was going on, the lion spoke to Tony one last time.

_You must enter the portal, Tony!_

"…The lion," He said in response. "It wants us to enter that portal."

"But where does it lead?" Kevin questioned.

"I don't know," Tony looked down for a moment before looking towards Marcus. "Marcus…you're the senior officer. What do you think we should do?"

As he watched Tony looked towards him, Marcus saw that Sasuke, Felecia, and Kevin were all looking at him as well. Having travelled through space on several occasions, Marcus had the most experienced when it came to something like this and the others knew that. Because of that they wanted him to give them some much needed guidance. Although Marcus was completely unfamiliar when it came to this precise situation, he did know one thing.

"Whatever happening here, the lion seems to know more than we do. I believe that we should trust it and go through the portal. But we're a team now. So let's decide together."

The cadets took a moment to look at one another after listening to Marcus's explanation. Although they each had mixed feelings about all this, the fact remained that staying here would only end with them getting captured by whoever was piloting the alien ship. Because of that, each of them silently nodded their heads in approval, with Felecia gently placing her hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Alright…" He said as he firmly gripped the flight sticks. "Let's do it!"

With one final push, Tony increased the blue lion's speed, causing it to race towards the portal even faster. Although the alien ship attempted to stop them by firing upon them again, it didn't help. The blue lion entered the portal and vortex instantly disappeared as a result.

Once the lion was gone, the alien captain of the ship angrily slammed his fist in frustration. Shortly afterwards, he began typing something on a dashboard in front of him. When he finished, he watched as someone appeared on the display screen in front of him.

"My lord…The escaped prisoner and his people found the Blue Lion. It attacked us before finally escaping through a wormhole."

"…_Trace the wormhole's coordinates and alert all ships in the area to intercept when it reappears. Capturing that lion is your first and only priority!"_

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_It's been a strange day for our heroes and it's only going to get even stranger. The Blue Lion leads them to a mysterious planet, where they encounter someone who might be able to shed some light on everything that's been happening. Who is this individual…and are they friend or foe?_

_Next Time, Chapter 3: The Awakening_


	3. Chapter 3

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 3**: _The Awakening_

* * *

It's always been mankind's greatest desire to fly out into space and see what lies beyond Earth's borders. However, anyone who thought of that had absolutely no idea just how vast the universe actually is or what secrets it holds. This was the case for 5 young individual from Earth; Marcus Robinson, Sasuke Kurosaki, Felecia Daniels, Antonio Martinelli, and Kevin Peterson. These individuals were about to learn what truly resides out there in the universe and what role the 5 of them will all have to play.

Following their escape from the alien ship that was chasing them from Earth, the group was busy trying to navigate through a vortex while inside of the mysterious Blue Lion. Somehow, for reasons that couldn't really be explained, the lion wanted them to enter the vortex and group ultimately relented to it. They had absolutely no idea what was about to happen now, but decided to push forward. They believed that the Blue Lion was the key to finding the remaining pieces of Voltron and they resolved to follow it in order to get to the super weapon.

Eventually, in a completely separate section of the universe, another vortex suddenly appeared and the Blue Lion exited from it. Upon doing so, Marcus and the others were all trying to shake off the intense jetlag that they were feeling from their interstellar travels. Unfortunately, while 4 of them were able to do so, Kevin was ultimately unable. Extremely nauseous, the young man soon found himself vomiting inside the cockpit of the Blue Lion, much to the disgust of everyone else.

"Damn it Kevin…" Felecia said as she attempted to avoid the vomit. "I know you're bad at this, but at least have some self control."

As Felecia shook her head in annoyance, Marcus walked over to Kevin and gently started rubbing his back. Having travelled through deep space before, he had firsthand experience of what Kevin was going through. Because of that, even though he did find it to be very disgusting, Marcus couldn't fault Kevin for throwing up and simply tried his best to comfort the young cadet as he continued to vomit.

While that was going on however, the others were busy looking out through the view screen. To their utter surprise, the first thing they saw was not the empty vastness of space, but instead a beautiful blue planet. It looked very similar to Earth, but it was clearly much bigger and seemed to have far more water. As they marveled at the sight of it, the Blue Lion suddenly started moving on its own, proceeding to make its way towards the planet.

"Hey…Where do you think you're going?" Sasuke questioned Tony.

"It's not me, it's the lion!" Tony replied. "I think…I think it's going home."

The Blue Lion quickly pierced through the planet's atmosphere, shaking its insides and, by extension, everyone else, as a result. Kevin nearly threw up again, but was stopped when Felecia forcibly covered his mouth and had him swallow his own vomit. Once the lion made it through the atmosphere of the planet, the group looked out its view screen and was able to get a better look of the surface.

As this was going on, Marcus noticed something coming up ahead. Although he wasn't able to make it out at first, the young man soon got a better look as the Blue Lion got closer to it. He saw that they were heading towards a large island. Not only that, but on the surface of the island of a large white structure. At a glance, the structure resembled that of a castle, but its design was vastly more intricate than any castle Marcus had seen before. It was clear to him that the Blue Lion wanted to bring the group to it, but Marcus had no idea why.

Soon though, the lion finally arrived at the island and proceeded to land down on some kind of landing zone. It then knelt its head down and opened its mouth. At first, the group had no clue what was going on, but soon came to the conclusion that the lion wanted them to leave the cockpit and head towards the castle. Because of that, they all complied too the lion's desire.

"Be careful everyone…" Marcus said as he led the others outside. "We're in unknown territory now and we need to be cautious."

"How come…?" Tony asked. "I thought you said that we should trust the lion."

"I know. Still…I lost old crew aliens before. I'm not about to let that happen again."

As he started to clinch his robotic fist, Marcus started thinking back to the time that he and his crew were captured. Although his memory during those days were still scattered, the one thing he did remembered clearly was the fear and agony that he felt. His failure to protect his former crew from that fate ate up at Marcus even now and he was determined to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself.

Once everyone was outside, they all took a moment to examine the castle more thoroughly before noticing that the Blue Lion was beginning to move on its own. They watched as the mechanical beast sat up and unleashed an ear deafening roar. Once that happened, the group then noticed that a section of the castle started to glow with a light blue color. This caused the doors to open up and reveal the interior.

Although somewhat apprehensive at first, the group slowly made their way inside the castle. Upon entering, they were amazed by just how sophisticated everything seemed to be. Whoever owned this castle must've had access to technology that was thousands of years more advanced than anything available on Earth. It was absolutely breathtaking, especially when it came to Felecia.

"Incredible…" She said in an awestruck tone. "This is absolutely incredible."

"…So what now?" Kevin wondered. "Where are we suppose to go?"

Just as Kevin said that, a light suddenly started to glimmer from the ceiling of the castle and shined down on the group. Once that happened, another light began to emerge from below and it went to cover them all very slowly.

"_Halt for Identity Scan!"_

A voice suddenly just spoke to everyone as the mysterious light continued to cover their bodies. Understandably concerned, Marcus stepped in front of his friends and braced himself for battle.

"Why are we here?!" He questioned. "What do you want with else?!"

The voice didn't answer the young man's questions. Whoever it was said everything that it needed to say and had no intention of saying anything else. This concerned Marcus as he was afraid that he might've just led his friends into some kind of trap. Because of that, he continued to assume his battle position even when all the lights slowly began to fade away.

Once the lights shining on them finally went out, another group of lights suddenly started to activate from a nearby hallway. As the Earthlings looked on, more and more continued to activate. From what they could tell, it seemed like the castle was telling them to head into the direction of the lights. Although this just raised their suspicions that they were being lead into a trap, the group found no other way of getting the answered they desired. With that, they all proceeded to head towards the lights.

"Well…He goes everything," Kevin nervously stated.

For the next 20 minutes, the group followed the lights as it led them deeper and deeper into the castle. As they walked, both Kevin and Tony tried calling out to someone, hoping that they would receive some kind of reply. Unfortunately, no one answered and that only raised their concerns. Soon though, as they made their way down towards the lower levels of the castle, they soon found themselves in another strange room.

In this room, several circular platforms were surrounding some kind of console. Intrigued, Felecia made her way over to it while everyone continued to look around the room. She then attempted to examine the console, trying to see what it was and how it worked.

"What is this place?" Sasuke wondered as he looked around.

"I think it's some kind of control room." Felecia answered. "But I'm not sure for what."

While continuing her examination, Felecia placed her hands on the console in an attempt to try and activate it. Upon doing so, a strange symbol suddenly appeared on the device and began to light up. This resulted in two of the platforms in the room to slowly begun to rise and reveal some kind of cocoon-like structure. They also noticed that inside both cocoons were people, one who looked like a man and the other a woman. Before they could determine anything else however, they watched as the walls of one of the cocoons slowly began to fade away.

Inside the cocoon was an extremely beautiful woman with long, flowing, blonde hair and purple eyes with a blue iris in the middle. Her attire consisted of a fancy dress that had a blue and white color scheme to it. In addition, she was also wearing a golden tiara with a crystal in the middle. However, what was most astonishing about her were her pointy ears and the pink crescent marks that were on her cheeks. When they saw her, everyone in the group was immediately awestruck by her beauty, especially Tony. They then watched as the woman slowly began to open her eyes.

"Fa…Father!"

Clearly shocked by something she just remembered, the woman suddenly stumbled out of the cocoon and nearly fell face first on the ground. Fortunately, Tony managed to catch her just in the nick of time. Upon getting a better look at her face, the young man was even more stricken by her beauty and attempted to look cool as she lifted her head to face him.

"Why hello there," He said, trying to sound as fancy as possible. "Good morning, gorgeous."

"…Who are you…" The woman asked. "And…where am I?"

"My name is Antonio Martinelli…And you're right here in my arms."

The woman stared at Tony intently, not sure what to make of this strange individual who was holding her so close. As she did so, she noticed something about him that piqued her interest.

"Your ears…"

"My ears…?" Tony glanced at his ears for a moment before looking back at the woman. "What about them?"

"…They're absolutely hideous. What's wrong with them?"

Taken aback by her comment, Tony let go of the woman and began staring at her with angry expression on his face.

"Nothing is wrong with them! Who are you to-"

Before Tony could finish his statement, the woman immediately grabbed a hold of his ear and used it to turn him around. She then grabbed his arm and twisted it back, causing Tony to fall to his knees in submission. Once she had him subdued, the woman slowly tightened her grip as she began to bombard the young man with a series of questions.

"Who are you?! Where is King Alfor?! What are you doing here in my castle?!"

"A giant blue robot lion brought us here!" Tony said, screaming in pain. "Ow! That's all we know!"

Confused by his answer, the woman slowly released Tony and pushed him back towards the others. She then examined each of them with a suspicious look in her eyes before continuing her questioning.

"How do you have the Blue Lion?! What happened to its Paladin?! Who are you people…and what are you doing here?!"

Realizing that things were getting too heated, Marcus calmly extended his hands out in front of the young woman, assuring her that they're not here to do her harm. He then went on to point at the others as he introduced them to her.

"I'm sorry but…we have no idea what you're talking about," He stated. "Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help."

The woman was slightly hesitant to reveal her identity to this group of strangers, especially since she still wasn't exactly sure what was going on here. However, upon seeing the apprehensive looks that was on some of their faces, she realized that getting upset wasn't going to solve anything. As a result, she introduced herself to the group.

"I am Princess Erina of Planet Altea," She revealed.

"I see…Well Princess, my name is Marcus Robinson. These are my friends; Sasuke Kurosaki, Kevin Peterson, Felecia Daniels, and Antonio Martinelli…but you can call him Tony for short. We come from the Planet Earth."

"…I see. I'm sorry, but I have to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep."

Making her away towards the console, Erina gently placed both of her hands on the touchpads that were on the side. This caused a small holographic view screen to appear in the middle, impressing Felecia greatly. The princess then started typing on the touchpad, trying her best to uncover the information that she desired.

While this was going on, the second cocoon started to activate. When Tony and the others took notice of this, they all watched as it slowly began to open as well. This time, it revealed a rather older man, who was wearing a suit that had the same color scheme as Erina's dress. Not only that, but her was a rather portly fellow with dark skin, purple eyes with orange irises, and well groomed black hair with a beard. Lastly, just like Erina, his arms were pointed and he had orange crescent shaped marks on his cheeks.

Upon awakening, the first thing that man took notice of was Marcus and the others. This caused his eyes to light up as he immediately jumped out of the cocoon and prepared to engage them.

"Enemy combatants!" He shouted.

As he watched the man jumped towards him, Tony easily sidestepped out of the way and watched as he fell face first onto the ground. Although shaken from the fall, the man quickly shook off the pain and stood right be back up.

"Quiznack! You're lucky I had a case of the sleep chamber knees, otherwise I would've had you in my family's famous choke hold and you'd be out in 3 ticks!"

Tony watched as the man began to demonstrate the choke hold that he planned on using on him if he did managed to grab a hold of him. When he saw this, the young man couldn't tell if this individual was being serious or if he was just playing around. Regardless, he wasn't about to let his comment go.

"Oh yeah?!" He replied. "I would have countered your hold, rattled your brain with a quick right hook, before taking you down with my famous power kick!"

"Oh really?! But at the moment you would've done that, I would stopped you dead in your tracks with my power bomb!"

As the two of them started simulating how they would've countered the others move, Felecia and the others were simply looking on with mixed expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, Erina was trying her absolute best to tune out their racket, but was having little success.

"Um…Who is this guy?" Kevin questioned.

"He's my royal vizier; Dardarian Angoliandos," The princess answered. "And, as you can plainly see, he's a bit eccentric."

Soon, after getting sick and tired of their bickering, Erina put her foot down, causing Dardarian to immediately stop messing around. He then watched as the princess was giving the vizier a rather stern look, clearly fed up with his foolishness. Upon seeing that look, Dardarian nervously straighten himself out as Erina turned herself back around and got back to work. Seeing that caused Tony to let out a small snicker, finding this display to be a bit amusing.

Eventually, after typing for another 5 minutes, Erina suddenly stopped. Her eyes then began to widen considerably and her entire body began to shake slightly. She then slowly took two steps back.

"This…can't be…"

"What is it?" Dardarian questioned and he ran up to her. "What did you find out?"

"If…If what I just read is true. Then we've been asleep…for over 10,000 years!"

* * *

**_10,000 Years Ago_**

Altea, a beautiful planet that's located on the far edge of the universe. Home to a kindhearted people known as Alteans, the planet was the epicenter of a technological advancement so vast that it completely changed the fate of the universe. The most notable of these advancements was the creation of a powerful super weapon known to all as Voltron. Created by the benevolent King Alfor, Voltron stood as a symbol for good and it soon became known as the Defender of the Universe. With Voltron at the helm, the universe entered a grand age of peace and prosperity.

Unfortunately, no matter what the era, peace doesn't last forever. Zarkon, king of the ruthless Galra Empire, had only one desire; compete domination over the universe. With a massive army at his fingertips, he conquered countless worlds and destroyed even more lives. If Voltron is considered a symbol of peace then the Galra and, by extension, Zarkon can be considered to be a symbol of evil. Soon though, Zarkon's desire for power became so great he began setting his sights on the one thing that would secure his rule for all eternity. That one thing was Voltron itself.

Without warning and abandon, Zarkon led his armies on a brutal campaign across the universe in his attempt to secure Voltron. In response, King Alfor and his allies did everything within their power to stop tyrant and put an end to his madness. Unfortunately, they were completely outmatched and one by one, worlds began to crumble at the hands of the Galra Empire. In time, the only world that was left to resist the Galra was Altea itself, but even it was on the verge of total destruction.

During one fierce battle, King Alfor was attempting to sustain the particle barrier erected around the fabled Castle of Lions. After countless losses throughout this world, the noble king was on his last legs. His eyes were shot, he had wrinkles all over his face, and his beard was long a messy. Even so, Alfor refused to give in to despair. He had to keep going, because it wasn't just his life on the line. The lives of everyone in the universe were hanging in the balance.

Fortunately, despite losing a sizeable portion of his men, Alfor wasn't alone in his resistance. He was joined by his daughter, Erina, and his loyal vizier, Dardarian. The two of them refused to abandon their king and were determined to stay with him and fight, even at the cost of their own lives. Together, the three of them managed to hold down the line and resist the Galra. However, despite their valiant attempts of resistance, the Galra continued their assault.

"The power in the engine room has been damaged!" Dardarian declared as he examined some data. "Emergency power is also rapidly diminishing!"

"The particle barrier won't last much longer!" Erina followed up. "If we're going to do something then we need to do it now!"

As the two of them tried their best to find workarounds to their respective problems, Alfor attempted to come up with a solution to this situation. Sadly however, every plan that did manage to come up with ended in death. All hope seemed to be lost. It was at that moment that Alfor suddenly received a hailing signal coming from a nearby Galra ship. When he put it through the castle's view screen, the noble king looked on as a menacing purple alien with glowing eyes and dark armor looked down at him. The moment he saw this alien, Alfor immediately knew who he was.

"Zarkon…"

"Yes Alfor…" The ruthless king replied. "Your fleet has been destroyed. Your planet, nearly wiped out. And now, I will be their shortly to claim Voltron!"

Once that was said, Zarkon terminated communications and his ship immediately fired upon the Castle of Lions again. Although the particle barrier managed to protect the castle, it was destroyed in the process. It would now take only more attack for Zarkon to wipe out his enemies and claim what he believed was rightfully his. Erina realized this and quickly turned towards her father.

"Father, we can't hold on much longer! We have to form Voltron and fight before it's too late!"

"…It's already too late," Alfor sadly replied. "We must send the Lions away! We can't risk them falling into Zarkon's hands!"

Taken aback for a moment, Erina was utterly shocked by her father's suggestion that they send the lions away instead of fighting. If they ran now, then everything they ever fought and died for up till this point would be in vain. Erina couldn't accept that, especially after all the things she lost in this war.

"No! We can't do that, father! We mustn't lose hope!"

Looking at his daughter, Alfor took note in the look in her eyes. It was clear that the princess was scared, but not for her own life. Instead, she was afraid for all the lives that would be sacrificed if they ran away and gave into fear. Alfor understood his daughter's feelings very well, but also managed to see the bigger picture. Because of that, he slowly walked up to Erina and gently placed his hand upon her cheek.

"I'm sorry, daughter. But if all goes well, I will see you again soon."

Once he said that, a small light shined on Alfor's fingertips and touched Erina's face. Instantly, the princess started to feel extremely drowsy and started to fumble backwards. Despite using all of her strength, Erina couldn't stay awake and attempted to reach out to her father before she fell asleep.

"Fa…Father…"

"…I love you, Erina."

Once Erina closed her eyes and fell into a magically induced slumber, Alfor held his daughter closely for a moment before carrying her into another section of the castle. With Dardarian following close behind, Alfor proceeded to place Erina into one of the sleeping chambers and sealed her inside it so that she wouldn't wake up. After he did that, he turned to face his vizier.

"Dardarian, you will take Erina and the Castle of Lions as far away from here as possible."

"But, your majesty…" Dardarian said, clearly shocked by the request that he was given. "You would have me leave your side at the very end?"

"…No," Alfor replied. "I would have you stand by my daughter's."

Walking over towards him, Alfor gently placed his hand upon Dardarian's shoulder. He then gave his vizier and comforting smile. Out of all of his attendants, Dardarian was the one he was the closest too. In many ways, the two of them were brothers and it was far that reason that Alfor had confidence that his friend could fulfill the task that he was given.

"I'm entrusting with what is most precious to me in this entire universe, Dardarian. Will you do this?"

Stunned by his king's faith in him, Dardarian couldn't help but become emotional and started shedding some tears. Although he wanted to stay and fight with him until the very end, Dardarian knew that Alfor was right. He had to take Erina as far away as possible from Altea. That way, even if the planet is lost, its legacy could still survive. So, with a heavy heart, Dardarian gently touched his king's hand before nodding at him.

"It would be…my greatest honor."

With that said, Alfor and Dardarian shared one final hug before the king left the castle to confront Zarkon. Once he was outside, Alfor watched as the Castle of Lions was started flying high into the air, thanks to the highly advanced booster rockets that were on its side. He then turned to face Zarkon's ship, which was slowly lowering down to meet him. After taking a deep breath, Alfor walked up and prepared to enter his final battle.

"To defend the universe!"

* * *

**_Present Day_**

Sometime after reading the information that was on the records log, Erina was busy sitting down on a set of steps. As Marcus and the others looked on, Dardarian tried his best to comfort his princess. Sadly however, the vizier's actions were having very little success.

"Planet Altea…and every planet in our Solar System have been destroyed," She said quietly. "Father, mother, and everyone…they're all gone. We're the only ones left."

The princess was on the verge of tears. Not only was she now the last of an extinct race of noble people, but the universe has gone through over 10,000 years of oppression by the Galra Empire with no one to oppose them. The despair that she was feeling was tremendous and it was only outweighed by one other emotion; anger. Erina was angry by the fact that her home was destroyed and her people were lost. But more importantly, Erina was angry with the one behind all this senseless destruction.

"Zarkon…!"

Suddenly, upon hearing Erina say that name, a memory flash shot through Marcus's mind. As he held his head in pain, the young man started to recall the time he was captive by aliens. Although there were still gaps, Marcus did remember one thing. He recalled the face of an evil tyrant with glowing purple eyes and that his name was Zarkon.

"…Zarkon," He said slowly. "Who is he?"

"A demon!" Erina angrily answered. "He was the king of the Galra. A vile creature…and enemy to all free people!"

"I remember now…Not that long ago, I was his prisoner."

As the others looked on, Erina immediately sat up. She couldn't believe what she just heard and started shaking her head in defiance.

"He's alive…?" She questioned. "Impossible! The Galra people have a lifespan of 300 years at best! For him to be alive…That would make him over 10,000 years old!"

"I can't explain it, but it's true," Marcus confirmed. "He's searching for a weapon called Voltron. Why does he want it? And what is it exactly?"

"…Zarkon is searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can defeat him. And that's why I have to find it before he does. Otherwise…the entire universe will forever be his!"

Meanwhile, in another section of the universe, a Galra spacecraft was busy hovering above a nearby planet. Without any hesitation, the ship fired down several lasers beams at the planet's surface, easily penetrating its core. This caused the planet to become unstable, resulting in it breaking apart and being destroyed in a fiery blast. However, despite the billions of lives lost as a result of this heartless action, the Galrans inside the ship did not even flinch a muscle. All they did was direct coldly direct their ship towards its next destination.

As this was happening, a mysterious hooded woman was busy performing a ritual in one of the ship's many rooms. She had dark blue skin, long white hair, red marking on her face, and glowing yellow eyes. Surrounding her was several floating crystals, all of which began to flicker as the woman continued chanting to herself. In addition, there was also a strange insignia placed beneath her as well. The woman has been at this for several hours, not even taking a moment to rest or even eat. However, as she continued her ritual, something unexpected occurred.

Suddenly, a strange pulsation occurred throughout the woman's body. This caused all the crystals, as well as the insignia, to all start glowing at the same time. As the pulsation grew stronger, quickly recognized what it was. Because of that, she picked herself up and quietly left the room that she was in. This caused all the crystals to immediately stop glowing and fall onto the ground.

After a few minutes of walking, the hooded woman made her way towards the central control deck of the ship. Inside was a large man with dark armor and a cape. This individual was none other than Zarkon, who didn't even need to turn around to know that the woman was in the room with him.

"What is it, Haggar?" He asked.

"The Blue Lion has returned, my lord," The woman answered. "And now I sense a resurgence of Altean energy."

For a moment, Zarkon remained silent. Following the reports that the Blue Lion was located on a rather primitive planet and that it escaped through a wormhole, the Galra Emperor suspected that the Altean magic was behind it. However, that seemed impossible as he personally killed King Alfor before destroying Altea itself. There was only one possible explanation, but even that was hard to believe.

"Alfor's daughter lives…How?"

"I know not…" Haggar continued. "But it is time we reclaimed what is rightfully ours."

"Yes…Finally, I shall wipe out that foul race from the universe forever…And take back Voltron! Contact my commanders."

While this was going on, another Galra ship was flying through another section of space. Inside a powerful Galra commander named Sendak was busy doing maintenance on his robot left arm. The arm was 3 times larger than an average one with razor sharp claws. Not only that, but arm was connected to his body by a strange purple energy. Also, in addition to the dark purple skin/fur, that all Galra have, Sendak also had a robotic replacement for his right eye.

Once the maintenance was complete, Sendak tested out his arm by extended far out towards the other side of the room that he was in. After reaching a certain point, the commander made a fist in with the arm and used it to punch a giant hole in the wall. Following that, thanks to the energy that was connecting it to his body, the arm returned to Sendak. He then nodded sternly to himself, seemingly pleased with the results.

"_Emperor Zarkon requests an audience with you, Commander."_

Upon hearing the message over the intercom, Sendak immediately made his way onto the bridge of his ship. Once he arrived, the commander knelt down to one knee and placed his head down slightly. The other members of his crew immediately followed suit as the view screen started to activate. After a few minutes, Zarkon appeared on the screen and stared directly at the kneeling Sendak.

"Commander Sendak…" He started off. "The Princess of Altea is alive and hiding in your sector. We believe that she alone holds the whereabouts to the remaining Voltron Lions. Your battle fleet is the closest to her current location. Retrieve her and the Lions. With them all, the Galra Empire will be unstoppable!"

"I fight for the Empire," Sendak replied as he placed his right fist near his heart. "I conquer in the name of Galra. No foe has faced me and lived to tell the tale…and none ever will. Vrepit Sa!"

As soon as that was said, Zarkon signed off and the transmission came to an end. Sendak rose back to his feet and immediately turned his helmsman. He then proceeded to give him one direct order.

"Set a course for Planet Arus!"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_Although she's still hurting over the loss of her people, Princess Erina doesn't have time to mourn. Commander Sendak's fleet is quickly approaching and she and her new allies must find the remaining Voltron Lions if they want any chance of surviving. However, that in turn brings forth a whole series of question. Where are the remaining lions? Who will pilot them? And can they retrieve them before the Galra arrive?_

_Next Time, Chapter 4: Lion Hunting_


	4. Chapter 4

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 4**: _Lion Hunting_

* * *

For Princess Erina of Altea, life has never been easy. As the crown princess of the noble Altean race, Erina has been groomed for nearly her entire life to one day take over the throne and lead her people into the future. It was a heavy responsibility and an even heavier burden, but it was one she welcomed. Erina wanted to be just like her father and one day rule over Altea with the strength and compassion that he always displayed. To that end, she worked hard in preparation for that day. Unfortunately for Erina, fate had other plans for her and the rest of her people.

With the backing of his Galra Empire, Emperor Zarkon attacked Altea in his attempt to claim Voltron. To protect the lions that formed the great warrior, as well as the rest of the universe, King Alfor made the calculated decision to send the lions into the farthest corners of the universe. Erina objected to his plan, believing that it would better for them fight than to run. However, Alfor denied her request and promptly put her into cryo-sleep in order to protect her from Zarkon. Then, along with her father's trusted vizier Dardarian, Erina fled Altea inside the massive Castle of Lions.

Now, after over 10,000 years of slumber, Erina was awakened by a group of 5 strange humans from a far off planet called Earth. With them was the Blue Lion of Voltron and the princess tragically learned the fate of her world. Altea was destroyed and King Alfor and the rest were slain. She and Dardarian were the only known survivors. Everyone one else was gone.

It was a lot to take in, especially for someone who's only around 18 years old like her. Although she tried her best to persevere and keep strong, Erina was clearly devastated by what she discovered. In what seemed like an instant to her, the young princess lost everything that she ever cared about. All that was left was her memories, and her intense hatred for the one responsible for this misery; Zarkon.

In order to take her mind off on what she was feeling, Erina was busy typing on the control console that was placed in the cryo chamber. She needed to learn more about what has happened during the 10,000 years that she was asleep. As the Earthlings silently watched her work, Dardarian reentered the room, carrying a plate of mysterious food. He then presented it to her, but the princess silently ignored him.

"Please eat something Princess," Dardarian requested. "It's been over 10,000 years."

"…I'm not hungry," Erina replied.

Although thankful for Dardarian's offer, Erina could not accept it. She wanted to drown herself in her work, believing that if she stopped to relax then she would be overwhelmed by the grief that she was feeling. This prompted her to gently knocked the plate from out of the vizier's hands. Thankfully, due to highly advance technology, the plate managed to stay afloat, much to the amazement of the others.

Kevin was the first to make his way over to the floating green food. A bit apprehensive at first, the young man gently grabbed a piece of it and tasted it. It was acquired taste, but Kevin actually found it to be pretty tasty. He took a much bigger piece and ate that too.

"I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm already starving," He commented.

"Yeah…But you already threw up about 5 times since we got here," Felecia pointed out.

"Hmm…Point taken."

While Kevin continued to eat the strange goo, which he playfully dubbed Food-Goo, Tony was busy coming to terms with this whole situation. Never in his wildest dreams that he ever believed that something like this would ever happen to him. Not only do aliens actually exist, but they've been around for the last 10,000 years. It was absolutely incredible and the young cadet couldn't tell if he should be impressed for frightened by it all.

"10,000 years…" He said to himself. "That's like 1,000 plus 10."

"…That's times 10, dumbass!" Sasuke corrected.

"Whatever, dropout!"

Tony angrily confronted Sasuke, who simply responded with a fierce glare. Ever since the two of them first met, it was obvious that they were not on the same page. Whether it was Tony's supposedly jealousy, Sasuke's clear indifference, or a combination of the two was anyone's guess. The only thing that was obvious is that the two of them clearly did not like each other and it looked like they were about to come to blows any moment now.

Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, Marcus was taking a moment to truly examine the inside of the castle. While at the Galaxy Garrison, Marcus initially believed that Earth was the home of the greatest technology that the universe has ever seen. However, in the span of just one year, that entire mindset was thrown completely out the window. Not only were the Galra Empire using tech that vastly outclassed anything Earth had to offer, but so did the people of Altea too. Even more impressive is that they've been doing this for more than 10,000 years, which is even longer than anything in recorded human history. Incredible was the only way to describe it.

"I can't believe your people created such incredible technology over 10,000 years old," He said. "It must've been an amazing place."

"…It was," Dardarian replied as he slowly placed his head down. "But now it's gone…and we're the last Alteans alive."

As Dardarian continued to look towards the ground, Marcus immediately started to feel bad about what he just said. Here he was gushing over the greatness of the Alteans work, only to remember that the Altean people were now basically extinct. To make matters worse, he did this just after both Dardarian and Erina learned about the tragic fate of their people. He was about to apologize, but Dardarian simply shook his head at him. The vizier wasn't upset by the young man's comment. He was simply trying to cope with what happened.

Soon, as he turned to face Erina, Dardarian saw that the princess was still engrossed with her work. However, he could also tell that Erina was trying her absolute best to fight off her tears. Upon remembering King Alfor's final request for him, Dardarian knew that he couldn't allow the princess to continue holding in her feelings like this. Because of this, walked up to Erina and gently touched her shoulders.

Although she was bit taken aback by this gesture, Erina's quickly began to overcome her upon seeing the comforting look on Dardarian's face. Eventually, she couldn't hold in anymore and tearfully started to cry as she held the old man. Marcus and the others looked on, all them feeling bad about their situation and tried their best to comfort them as well. Erina was thankful to all of them, but the wound in her heart was still substantial.

Fortunately, as she continued to embrace Dardarian, Erina suddenly picked up something thanks to her highly advanced hearing. Moving over to one of the cryo-pods, where she first heard the noise, the princess looked down and saw 4 different colored mice. As they all stared happily at her, Erina let out a small smile as she gently allowed them to sit in the palm of her hands. She then presented the mice to Dardarian and the others.

"Looks like we're not the last one's after all," She stated.

As Erina continued to present the mice, a loud alarm suddenly went off throughout the entire castle, startling everyone inside. Dardarian immediately rushed over towards the console in order to see what was going on. When he did, the vizier was horrified to see an oncoming Galra ship flying through the deepest reaches of space.

"A Galra battle cruiser has set its tracker on us!" He revealed. "It's heading straight for us!"

Shocked by this revelation, Erina quickly made her way towards the console and looked at the video feed. Just as Dardarian said, a Galra ship was indeed heading towards them and it wouldn't be too long until it reached the planet. This frightened the young princess greatly, but it also caused a particular question to pop into her head.

"How did they find us?!"

"…Who knows," Tony said. "But it was probably Sasuke's fault."

"Say whatever you want if it makes you feel better," Sasuke angrily replied. "After getting us stuck on the other side of a f**king wormhole!"

"I'll put you in a f**king wormhole!"

Just as the two boys were about to finally come to blows, Marcus immediately stepped in and broke the two of them up. Although Sasuke attempted to get past him, Marcus managed to put the young man in his place. This caused Tony to snicker a bit, but he was quickly silenced as well when Marcus glared at him. Now wasn't the time for pointless arguing.

"Stop it you two! This is no time to place blame on one another. If we want to make it out of this then we have to work as a team!"

After getting the two cadets to calm down, Marcus made his way over to the console. As he examined the oncoming Galra craft, the young man tried to come up with a plan to get everyone out of this situation. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to mind. Marcus knew that they needed more information, so he turned to Dardarian and Erina in order to see if they had any answers.

"How long before they arrive?"

Upon hearing Marcus's question, Dardarian quickly took a moment to calculate the distance of the Galra ship and the estimated time it would take for it to arrive here on Planet Arus. After a few seconds, Dardarian came up with an answer.

"At their current rate of speed…They'll be here in about a couple of days."

"…Good," Erina angrily followed. "Let those monsters come. By the time they get here, you 5 will have reformed Voltron and together, we will put an end to Zarkon and his empire!"

Marcus and the others were all shocked by Erina's declaration. This was especially true for Kevin, who nearly vomited at the prospect of dealing with more evil aliens. Thankfully, Felecia quickly stopped him from doing so and had him swallow his vomit. She then turned to face the princess as Marcus asked her another question.

"Princess Erina…there are 5 of these Voltron Lions and we only have 1. Where are we going to find the rest?"

Erina paused for a moment as she thought about the question that she was just asked. She then looked at the 5 Earthlings, taking the time to examine them all very closely. In many ways, they all seemed very qualified to fulfill this incredible task and Erina personally wished that she had a better group of people by her side. Unfortunately, that simply wasn't the case. Like it or not, Erina was stuck with them and she had to make the most of it.

"…Come with me,"

Once she said that, Erina quickly made her way into another section of the castle. The others followed her closely and, after about 10 minutes of walking, they now made it to the central hub of the Castle of Lions, otherwise known as its bridge. As soon as they arrived, Erina gently placed her new rodent friends on the ground before making her way towards the center of the room. She then stood on a small platform as a light began to shine down upon her.

After taking a moment to concentrate her energy, Erina summoned forth a large holographic map of space. As the others looked in amazement, Felecia took notice of all the different planets that were in the area. Being a science whiz, the sight of all this impressed the young woman a great deal.

"This is incredible…" She stated. "But why is the princess doing this?"

"Before he sent us away, King Alfor connected the energies of each of the Voltron Lions to Erina's life force," Dardarian explained. "She alone is the key to each of their whereabouts."

Moving her hands around, Erina caused the stars and planets to move around in concert with her. One of those planets was Arus, the same planet that they were on right now. As Felecia examined the planet, the young woman saw the Blue Lion standing next to it. In addition, she saw that another lion was next to the planet as well. Recalling the vision she had when she first found the Blue Lion, Felecia recognized this second lion as the Black Lion. This caused another question to pop into her head.

"Why is the Black Lion in the same location as the Blue Lion? Is it already here?"

"That is correct," Erina answered with a nod. "The Black Lion is the strongest of all the Voltron Lions. To keep it out of Zarkon's hands, my father locked it here in the castle. It can only be freed if they other 4 lions are present."

Waving her hands around again, Erina caused the holographic image of the Black Lion to started moving around the entire room. As it did so, the lion soon made its way towards her and landed in the palm of her hand.

"As I'm sure you all guessed when you found the Blue Lion, the Voltron Lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond that cannot be forced. The Quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in their lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain."

As she let the holographic Black Lion go, Erina waved her hand one more time and watched as it began flying towards Marcus. The young man looked on in amazement as the Lion began circling around him.

"The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. Only a pilot who is a born leader and is in full control of his actions will have any hope of bonding with it, someone whose men will follow without any hesitation. Marcus, I believe you possess these qualities…and that is why you will pilot the Black Lion and become the leader of Voltron."

Upon hearing Erina say that, Marcus watched as the Black Lion continued to fly around him. He then placed his hand out like she did and observed that the lion gently touched down upon it. It was at that moment that he realized what he needed to do and promptly nodded his head as a result.

Following that, Erina moved the map again. This time, the Green Voltron Lion appeared and began circling around her for an instant before heading towards the others. The lion soon started circling around Felecia, much to the young woman's amazement.

"The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and will require a pilot of intellect and daring," The princess continued. "One who is always striving to expand their understanding of the universe, regardless of the risks. Felecia, by just looking at you, I can tell that you're like this. As a result…you will pilot the Green Lion."

As the lion stopped to face her, Felecia stared at it intently as she placed her hands out. When she saw it land, she was immediately impressed by the beast and, much to the shock of the others, gave it a small smile.

Erina then moved the map back to the system where Arus was located. When she finished, the Blue Lion reappeared and it soon began flying around Tony. The young man became extremely ecstatic as he held out his hand and watched as the lion landed on it.

"The Blue Lion-"

"Hold up, princess!" Tony rudely interrupted. "I already know what you're about to say. The Blue Lion requires the most skillful/badass/handsome pilot of the bunch, right?"

As she watched him give her a flamboyant smile, Erina simply stared at Tony with a deadpan expression on her face. The princess didn't know what to make of him, but she was getting dangerously close to calling him an idiot. Thankfully, she managed to control herself and soon found herself moving the map again.

"Tony…you will pilot the Blue Lion," She coldly continued.

After a few more seconds of searching, Erina soon came across the Yellow Lion. Like the others, the beast started flying around her for a moment before eventually making its way towards Kevin. When he noticed that, the young man nervously watched as the lion started flying around him. Somewhat apprehensive, Kevin tried knocking it away, but the Yellow Lion soon found itself landing on the young man's head.

"The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others before his own. His strength is only surpassed by his heart. Kevin…you will pilot the Yellow Lion and as the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together."

With 4 lions down, Erina finally turned her attention towards Sasuke. With just one look at him, the princess could tell right away that the final lion was a perfect match for him. Because of that, she moved the map around until the Red Lion appeared. She then immediately directed it towards Sasuke, who caught it in his hand.

"The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master," She explained. "It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot must be one who relies on instincts than skill alone. Sasuke…you will pilot the Red Lion and, by extension, be the right hand of Voltron."

Sasuke let out a confident smile after hearing Erina's description of the Red Lion. Like her, he could tell that the two were a perfect match for one another. However, while Sasuke may have felt that way, Tony surely didn't. He didn't like how Erina pointed out that only the most skillful pilot could possibly fly the Red Lion and how she believed Sasuke was that pilot. Not only that, but her description of him being Voltron's right hand is the same as saying that Sasuke is the second-in-command of the team, which annoyed him further. He was about to say something, but Erina cut him off.

"Unfortunately, I can't find the Red Lion's coordinates yet," She revealed. "I doubt it's anything serious though. The castle's probably a bit glitchy after being in stasis for so long."

"Don't worry, we'll have find that lion in no time," Dardarian followed. "If there's one thing I have absolute confidence in it's my skills as a mechanic…as well as a pilot."

Sasuke glance at Dardarian for a moment and noticed the vizier acting rather haughty. Just like how Erina was thinking that Tony was some kind of idiot, so did Sasuke feel the same way with Dardarian. However, he chose to keep those thoughts to himself and simply stared at him with a silent expression on his face.

Soon though, all 5 of the holographic lions roared in unison as they flew high into the air. When they came together, a massive light covered the entire area. When it faded, a massive imagine of Voltron appeared before everyone.

"Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known," Erina declared. "The Defender of the Universe!"

As the giant holographic image of Voltron continued to look down at everyone, Marcus and his team were all in awe at the mere sight of it. Soon though, as the image slowly began to fade away and the lights in the room cut back on, Marcus refocused himself. The time has come to finally get to work.

"Alright guys," He said as he faced them. "Let's get started. Felecia, you and I are going to go after the Green Lion. Tony, you take Kevin and go find the Yellow Lion. Sasuke, you stay here with the princess and Dardarian. Help them out in any way that you can, but if you find the Red Lion then go after it."

The 4 cadets, despite some of them having mixed feelings about all this, all nodded their heads in compliance to Marcus's orders. Regardless of what they ultimately felt, the fact remained that they needed to retrieve all the lions from their respective hiding places as soon as possible. With that in mind, they all prepared to get to work.

"Good…" Erina acknowledged. "In the meantime, I'll work on getting the castle ready. We'll need its power if we want any chance of holding off the Galra."

"I'll ready a pod," Dardarian followed. "And give you the coordinates so that you can locate the Green and Yellow Lions."

With their respective assignments now known, Marcus and Felecia left with Dardarian for the castle's hanger bay. At the same time, Tony and Kevin made their way outside and were quickly greeted by the Blue Lion. After getting inside the mechanical beast, Tony sat in his seat and watched as a set of coordinates appeared on one of the lion's touchpads. He then prepared to take off while Dardarian brought Marcus and Felecia to the pod that they would use to travel to the Green Lion.

While this was going on, Sasuke was busy helping Erina as she worked on the Castle of Lions. Once she was informed that everything was set, the princess made her way back towards the platform that she was standing on earlier. Sasuke then watched as she called forth two small pillars that rose up from the ground. Erina placed her hands on each of the pillars, causing another light to surround her body. This caused 2 wormholes to materialize just above the planet.

"Thanks to her studies in Altean magic, the princess can use the castle to open up wormholes to various places in the universe," Dardarian explained over an intercom. "You can use them to reach the planets that lead to the other lions. However, she can only hold it for about two of your Earth hours. So, unless you to spend the rest of lives on an unknown planet, I suggest you be quick about it."

When the 4 Earthlings heard Dardarian say that, all of them were stunned and attempted to protest against the vizier. However, the transmission was already cut by that point. The Blue Lion then suddenly flew high into the air and transported Tony and Kevin towards the location of the Yellow Lion. At the same time, the pod that Marcus and Felecia activated on its own and flew through the second wormhole that leads to the Green Lion.

* * *

After about 2 minutes of flying through a temporal portal of time and space, Marcus and Felecia made it out of the wormhole and soon found themselves at the edge of another planet. Unlike Arus, this planet was greener, indicating that it was filled with a lot more plant life than water. As the pod flew them towards it, Felecia pulled out a portable scanner that Dardarian gave to her before she left. It indicated that the Green Lion was indeed located here, revealing that they were indeed on the right track. She then braced herself as the pod started to break through the planet's atmosphere and make its way towards to the surface.

Upon landing, Marcus and Felecia jumped out of the pod and the two found themselves in the middle of the jungle. Being a bit of a tech junkie, Felecia wasn't exactly thrilled that she was here as she found the outdoors to be filled with nothing but bugs and poison oak. Marcus on the other hand was far more accepting of his current surroundings. Being held captive by the Galra for so long gave the young man a better appreciation for natural aspects of life. Not only that, but Marcus also noticed that this planet seemed very peaceful, which he enjoyed very much.

Soon though, after about 20 minutes of walking, the two of them found themselves at a riverbed. After looking at the scanner, Felecia was able to determine that the path to the Green Lion continued through the river. The only problem is that current was too strong for them to swim through it and they didn't have a boat to ride through it either. Things didn't seem to be looking too good for the both of them, but that's when something unexpected occurred.

From out of nowhere, a giant sloth-like creature suddenly appeared right in front of them. When they made eye contact, Marcus and Felecia simply stared at it for a second before immediately becoming startled. The sloth however simply kept its cool and continued to stare at the two of them. It then took notice of Felecia as she nervously hid behind Marcus.

"Who…Who the hell are you?!"

The sloth didn't answer her question. Instead it just continued to stare at her. In particular, it stared at the tracker that she was holding in her hand. The sloth noticed a v-shaped symbol on the back of it. Just looking at it gave the animal all the information that it needed. Because of that, it nodded its head at the two Earthlings before making its way towards a nearby bush. It then pulled out a large canoe that had a large lion figurehead on its bow.

After putting the canoe in the water, the sloth looked back Marcus and Felecia and gave them a warm smile. It then started waving at them, indicating that it wanted them to follow it. Although slightly apprehensive at first, Marcus nodded his head in return and began walking towards it, much to Felecia's shock.

"Wait…You're actually going with it?!" She questioned.

"Yeah…" Marcus calmly answered. "The big guy seems to know more than we do. Besides, it beats having to walk around the river."

"But we have no idea where it will lead us. For all we know it could lead us to some kind of trap."

"That's true. But I've been held captive by aliens for over a year. Compared to that, this is nothing."

With that said, Marcus got onto the canoe. Felecia continued to be apprehensive about trusting the sloth and nearly considered taking the long way around. However, the young woman quickly changed her mind when she noticed that sloth was leaving with Marcus. Not wanting to be left behind, Felecia rushed towards them and quickly jumped onboard the craft, much to Marcus's amusement.

The two of them then rode with the sloth as it took them down the riverbed. As they rode along, the Earthlings took noticed of all the various animals that were present in the forest. Some of them looked similar to those animals that were found on Earth, while others looked vastly different. The two also noticed several lion carvings throughout their travels. They looked similar to the ones they saw when they found the Blue Lion, which meant that they were on the right track.

Soon though, as they continued down the river, Marcus noticed that Felecia was busy muttering something to herself. He also saw that she was tapping her fingers on the edges of the canoe rather excessively. Although he wasn't too deeply concerned, the young man still wanted to know what was on her mind.

"Is everything okay?" He questioned.

"Huh…?" Felecia said, shocked by for an instant. "I'm fine. It's just…I know the princess said this lion is supposed to be mine…but what if she's wrong. I mean, she can't be wrong because she's a princess, but I'm not a pilot. Even though, I always wanted to be a pilot. I mean, I memorized all the fighter manuals at the Garrison, but I was never allowed to ride the simulator. But hey, I can't be as bad as Tony as he crashes all the time. But, what if I get in there and the lion doesn't respond?! What if I get in there and my feet don't even touch the pedals?! What if there's no pedals?!"

Felecia continued to ramble for the next several minutes, causing the sloth to look back at Marcus and silently question if everything is okay with her. Giving it an awkward smile, Marcus moved his hands to the side, telling the sloth that he was just as perplexed by this as it was. He then looked back at Felecia, who continued talking excessively.

"Stop rambling…" He interrupted. "Everything will be fine."

"But how can you be so sure?!" Felecia questioned.

Pausing for a moment, Marcus took the time to recall his time preparing for the Kerberos mission. As he trained for the long journey, he encountered a young cadet that reminded him a lot of Felecia. He then went on to tell the young woman about this cadet.

"Listen…During the Kerberos mission, I had a Science Officer named Amrita Punjabi. Like you, she was a bit eccentric, but she had a tremendous drive to expand her horizons. When I talked to her about that drive, she told me something that she would always tell to a girl that she was dating. She said, if you get too worried about what could go wrong then you'll miss out on being able to do something great."

Upon hearing that, Felecia's worries quickly faded away as a warm smile slowly appeared on her face. She then looked up as she noticed something up ahead. Marcus took notice of it too and saw a step pyramid that had several massive vines covering the stop. The sloth stopped the canoe near the edge at the river before directing the two of them towards pyramid. Realizing that this was their stop, Marcus and Felecia silently thanked the canoe before making their way towards the pyramid.

As they walked, Marcus noticed that as Felecia got closer to the pyramid, several the lion carvings started to light up with a bright green color. Felecia took notice of this too, causing her to stop for a moment. However, with a light pushed from his robotic arm, Marcus pressed her to keep moving forward. He then smiled at her.

"Go…Be great."

With a determined look on her face, Felecia nodded her head at Marcus before running towards the pyramid. As she climbed up the steps, it began to light up with the same green color as the carvings. Although she struggled a bit when it came to climbing up the vines, the young man kept on going until she finally reached the top. Once she did, she started looking for any sign of the Green Lion, only to be caught off guard by a bright light coming from below her.

_Felecia!_

A voice sudden spoke from within her mind. By just hearing it once, Felecia immediately knew what it was as a huge smile appeared on her face. This prompted her to jump down through the massive vines, causing a green light to consume the entire area for a moment.

While watching all this occur, Marcus heard an extremely loud roar echo throughout the entire forest. He then felt the ground shake beneath him as the vines on top of the pyramid began to break apart. In time, the Green Lion erupted from the vines and looked down at Marcus. When he saw that, all the young man could do was smile.

"She did it."

* * *

During the time Marcus and Felecia were busy searching for the Green Lion, Tony and Kevin finally arrived at the sight of the Yellow Lion. In contrast to the vast jungle planet that their teammates were on, the two of them found themselves on some kind of desert planet. There were canyons everywhere and no signs of life. The place was completely barren, but Tony hoped that would make finding the Yellow Lion that much easier. Sadly, that wasn't the case at all.

As soon as the Blue Lion made contact on the planet, both Tony and Kevin found themselves under attack by a barrage of Galra soldiers. Apparently, the Galra had prior business on this planet as they were using various mining equipment to dig through the earth. However, any plans they had immediately went out the door when the Blue Lion of Voltron suddenly appeared before them. Now, with their prize in arms reach, the soldiers put their entire attention on retrieving the lion for their emperor.

While Tony was doing everything he can to avoid getting blasted, Kevin was nervously looking through the coordinates that Dardarian gave to him. After a bit of time, he picked up a signal on the Yellow Lion's location. This prompted him to slowly walk over to the view screen and stare straight at a large mining facility that the Galra had set up.

"There…The coordinates say that the Yellow Lion is in there!"

"Good!" Tony replied as he narrowly dodged another attack. "Now go down there and get it!"

"What? Me? No way!"

Shaking his head in defiance, Kevin was absolutely against leaving the safety of the Blue Lion to go out and find the Yellow Lion. An overly cautious individual, he wasn't exactly thrilled by everything that's been happening in the last several hours and really just wanted to go back home. However, Tony wasn't having any of it right now as they really needed to get that lion.

"Yes! Now hurry up and go get it! I'll try and cover you as best as I can!"

Without even turning around, Tony pressed a button on his lion's control console. This caused the Blue Lion to fly down to the surface and start dashing towards the entrance of the mining facility. Kevin tried his best to dissuade his friend from doing this, but it was already too late by that time.

"But what if the Yellow Lion doesn't even work?! What if it refuses to accept me?! What if it-"

Before he could finishing his complaining, the Blue Lion immediately ejected Kevin from its head and the young man suddenly found himself rolling across the ground. When he finally stopped, Kevin found himself at the entrance, but also saw several Galra soldiers were about to shoot him while his back was turned. Thankfully, Tony had the Blue Lion step in between them and shield his friend from the assault. He then engaged the fighters, hoping to buy Kevin enough time as possible.

When Kevin saw this, he was amazed that Tony would go so far to help him retrieve the Yellow Lion. Although he was still scared, he knew that he couldn't live with himself if he ran away now while Tony was fighting. With that, he immediately rushed inside the mining facility as fast as he could.

Upon entering, the first thing that Kevin noticed was a large red platform. From the looks of things, it was used so that workers and either bring themselves or object into the lower levels. When he got on it, Kevin saw a nearby control box and attempted to use it to activate the platform. When his initial attempts failed however, the young man improvised and proceeded to open up the box and examine its wiring.

"Okay…" He said as he moved the wires around. "It's just like fixing the TV back home. You can do this, Kevin."

With his extensive knowledge of engineering, Kevin managed to easily connect the appropriate wires together in order to activate the platform. As it began making its way towards the lower levels of the facility, he looked on in awe as the walls were beginning to glow with yellow cave markings. It was just like when he found the Blue Lion, which meant he was on the right track. Once he made it to the ground, Kevin got off the platform and continued his journey.

Following the lights, Kevin soon found himself in a new section of the facility. It was entirely closed off and led to nowhere. However, the yellow lights glowed their brightest in this place so he had to be going the right way. This was only further indicated when he saw a giant yellow circle appear before him on one of the walls.

"Alright…So what now? How am I going to get through?"

While trying to come up with a solution, Kevin felt several tremors coming from outside. Tony's fight with the Galra was getting more intense and it wouldn't much longer until the facility collapse and buried him alive. He had to come up with something now, but nothing seemed to come to mind. Fortunately, as he continued to look around, he noticed a large drill machine.

"…That'll work."

Rushing towards the drill, Kevin got in and attempted to activate it. Thankfully, it still had plenty of power and the young man watched as the drill started spinning around at a blinding speed. He then drove the machine towards the circle and began digging through it. After about 2 minutes, the drill finally managed to pierce through to the other side. It was at that moment that Kevin came face to face with the Yellow Lion, who was protected from inside a particle barrier.

_I've been waiting for you, Kevin._

Meanwhile, during the moments in which Kevin was searching for the Yellow Lion, Tony was continuing his battle with the Galra that were attacking him. Although he was managing to hold his own against him, his overall inexperience with piloting was leaving him at a major disadvantage. Not only that, but with every ship that he happened to take out, 3 more ships would appear to take their place. It was a never ending battle, but Tony pushed himself to keep going. There was simply too much on the line for him to fail.

As the battle in the sky progressed, several Galra scouts decided to use this opportunity to go after Kevin while he was still inside the mining facility. Through the Blue Lion's scanners, Tony noticed this and attempted race over to help his friend. However, the Galra that he was already fighting wasn't making it easy for him to break through. Thankfully, thanks to the lasers that the Blue Lion had in both is mouth and on the tip of its tail, Tony was eventually able to destroy the ships and race towards the mines.

"C'mon…Please make it in time!"

Pushing down on the thrusters, Tony increased the Blue Lion's speed and see reached the mines. He then watched as the Galra ships were about to fire upon the facility. Reacting quickly, Tony fired several lasers at his enemies. He missed his first few shots, but soon managed to connect and damaged the ships. Unfortunately, while the first ship was instantly destroyed, the second one managed to hold on for a bit before it exploded. This gave the individual inside to fire a missile and direct it straight for the entrance of the mines.

"Kevin!"

Despite Tony's pleas, the missile made contact with the mines and exploded. This resulted in a cave in that caused the entire facility to collapse. When he saw this, Tony immediately feared the worst and began to grit his teeth in frustration. He then angrily turned to face the remaining Galra ships, intent on avenging Kevin. However, much to his surprised, the Blue Lion was suddenly attacked from behind. The Galra had sent reinforcements and were now attacking Tony from all sides.

Although he tried his best to outmaneuver them, there were simply too many for Tony to avoid and he soon found himself bombarded by laser fire. As the Blue Lion started falling towards the ground, the young man frantically started shaking its controls.

"Shit, shit, shit!" He cursed. "C'mon, you have to work with me!"

Once the Blue Lion hit the ground, it started rolling along the surface for a few moments before finally straightening out. Unfortunately, it wasn't in good shape and it could no longer take any more punishment. The Galra noticed this and attempted to finish the battle with a barrage of missiles and laser fire. When Tony saw this, all he could do was close his eyes and brace himself for the worst.

Thankfully, just before the attack managed to reach its intended target, the Yellow Lion suddenly emerged from the ground and used its massive body to shield the Blue Lion. Then, before the Galra could even respond, the lion rushed over and squashed them all like pancakes. It then picked itself back up before facing the Blue Lion again.

"Are you okay, Tony?"

Recognizing the voice that just spoke to him, Tony opened up his eyes and stared at the Yellow Lion with a shocked expression on his face. The voiced belonged to none other than Kevin. Not only did he survive, but he found the Yellow Lion and saved him.

"Kevin, you're alive!" He said with a mixture of excitement and relief. "I thought you were dead! You jumped in front of all those shots to save me!"

"Well…actually really trying to get out of the way," Kevin truthfully revealed as his face appeared on one of the Blue Lion's view screen. "Thankfully, what this big guy lacks in speed it more than makes up in defense. It can sure take a beating."

Tony didn't really care about how Kevin survived, he was just glad that he did. It was a huge relief for him. However, just as he was starting to feel better, another wave of Galra ships suddenly appeared and began bombarding the lions. It was at that moment that Princess Erina appeared on both Tony's and Kevin's view screens.

"Tony…Kevin!" She called out too. "Please hurry back to the castle! I can't keep the wormhole up much longer!"

"You got it!" Tony replied. "C'mon Kevin, let's get out of here!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Kevin followed.

When the transmission came to an end, Tony and Kevin flew their respective lions high into the air, making their way back towards the wormhole. The Galra ships gave chase, trying their best to stop them before it was too late. During this exchange, a few of the lasers hit the Yellow Lion and caused it to start spinning around. This led to Kevin feeling nauseous and nearly throwing up inside the lion. When Tony noticed this he simply shook his head as the Blue Lion entered the wormhole.

"Quit screwing around, Kevin. We need to go!"

"Ri…Right…" Kevin sickly replied.

The Yellow Lion slowly straighten itself out as it too also managed to enter the wormhole. Once it did so, the portal suddenly disappeared from sight, leaving the Galra ships confused by what just happened.

* * *

Back on Planet Arus, Erina and Dardarian were busy making sure that all the systems inside the Castle of Lions were properly functioning. Helping them was Sasuke who, while not very tech savvy, did what he could to assist. After nearly 2 hours, the three of them watched as the Green Voltron Lion suddenly appeared from a wormhole. Felecia was successfully in retrieving it, much to Erina's joy. Then, not long after that, the Blue Lion emerged from another wormhole with the Yellow Lion. Kevin was also successful in his venture. Upon reentering the castle, Erina cheerfully greeted the group.

"Thank goodness…" She said with a smile. "You've made it."

"Yeah…but barely," Tony pointed out as he stretched his back. "That was a nightmare. For a second I felt like Kevin."

"Think how I felt," Kevin said as he gently rubbed the top of his head. "I am Kevin."

As Felecia stared at the two boys, the young woman let out a small snicker. It was clear to her that they had a rather challenging time in retrieving the Yellow Lion. Thankfully, her and Marcus's quest to retrieve the Green Lion wasn't as difficult.

"Yeah…We had a tough time too."

When she glanced over a Marcus, Felecia gave him a small smile. This caused Marcus to let out one of his own. He could tell that she was being rather sarcastic with her comment, but also knew that she didn't mean any ill will by it. He then turned to face both Dardarian and Erina.

"So, did we find the Red Lion yet?" He inquired.

"The Princess just located it before you returned," Dardarian revealed. "The good news is that the Red Lion is nearby. The bad news is that it's located on that Galra ship that's now orbiting Arus. But wait a minute…We are Arus!"

Marcus, Felecia, Tony, and Kevin remained silent for a moment as they slowly processed the information that they were just given. When that moment passed, they immediately jumped up with panicked looks on their faces.

"They're already here?!" Marcus questioned. "But I thought we still had time."

"…So did I," Dardarian nervously stated. "But you see, I was actually calculating the time the Galra would get here back when I last saw their ships. Apparently they've made some noticeable upgrades during the last 10,000 years."

The vizier attempted to laugh off the problem, but it clear that no one was amused. What was a bad situation just turned into a horrible one. The Galra were literally breathing down their necks and they still haven't retrieved all the Voltron Lions yet. And, to really drive it home how bad things are, the Red Lion was on that very same Galra ship. Then, just when it looked like things couldn't get much worse, they suddenly did.

From out of nowhere, something began to hack into the communications network of the Castle of Lions. As everyone looked on at the view screen, they watched as Sendak suddenly appeared before them. The Galra commander gave each of them a stern look, but focused the majority of his attention on Erina.

"Princess Erina, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire," He revealed. "I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, lord of the known universe. I am here to confiscate the Voltron Lions. Turn them, as well as yourself, over to me…or I will destroy your planet!"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_With Sendak and his fleet hovering above them, our heroes are literally cornered. Some of them want flee and live to fight another day while others want to fight and make a last stand. In the end, they turn to Erina, but even she isn't quite sure what to do. Regardless of her decision, they need to be quick about it. If not, then the war against the Galra Empire will end before it's even begins._

_Next Time, Chapter 5: The Legend Reawakens – Part 1_


	5. Chapter 5

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 5**: _The Legend Reawakens – Part 1_

* * *

"Princess Erina, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, lord of the known universe. I am here to confiscate the Voltron Lions. Turn them, as well as yourself, over to me…or I will destroy your planet!"

When one is given an ultimatum, they only have 2 choices; comply or deny. In most cases, no matter what choice is made, the ultimate outcome of it will still be bad for the one the ultimatum is being forced upon. This was the case for Princess Erina of Altea as Commander Sendak just informed her.

With his fleet flying high above Planet Arus, ready to strike down with lethal prejudice, the Galra commander has just given Erina an impossible decision. Either she surrenders herself and all the Voltron Lions that she currently possesses or risk the destruction of Arus. Both choices were awful and both will lead to terrible consequences if they're made. Erina didn't know what to do and she doesn't have a lot of time before she has to come up with an answer. Her back was against the wall.

As Sendak waited for a response, Dardarian rushed over to a console and immediately cut the video transmission that he was transmitting. Despite the commander no longer being present however, his threat still lingered inside the Castle of Lions. Although they each had a different expression on their face, the fact remained that they were all concerned by what was going to happen. In time however, Marcus was the first to speak up and talk to the group.

"Okay…Let's not panic everyone."

"Not panic…?" Kevin repeated as he turned to face Marcus. "Not panic? What do you mean not panic?! That scary purple alien guy is hovering his battleship over us and we only have 4 of the lions!"

Upon listening to Kevin's explanation, Felecia immediately picked on something that he just said and realized that he was incorrect about it. The young woman then went to point out what he got wrong.

"Actually, we have only 3 working lions," She revealed. "The Black Lion is still sealed within the castle."

"…Thank you, Felecia," Kevin replied, gently tapping her shoulder. "We have only 3 working lions and a castle that's 10,000 years old. This is the perfect time to be panicking!"

"Actually, its 10,600 years old," Dardarian pointed out. "You see it was actually created by the grandfather of one my close friends. His name was Coran Her-"

Before Dardarian could finish his story, Kevin immediately rushed over towards him and covered his mouth. Now wasn't the time for a long and complicated story about the past. They had to figure out what they were going to do and they needed to do that right now. Eventually, as they weighed their options, Erina came to a sudden realization.

"Wait a minute! This ship has a particle barrier that we can activate!"

"Princess, you have already activated my-"

Just as Tony was about to finish his seemingly romantic statement, Marcus suddenly silenced him by taking his hand and covering his mouth as well. He then gave a cadet an annoying glare, telling him that there was no time for any tasteless comments. Getting the message, Tony nodded his head in compliance as he watched Marcus remove his hand from his mouth.

Shortly after that, Dardarian raced over to main control console and began typing rapidly. As he did so, schematics of Sendak's battleship suddenly appeared on the castle's view screen. With the words typed in an ancient Altean language, there was no way for the Earthlings to know what it said. However, the one thing that they did take notice of was the fact that the cannon on Sendak's ship was highlighted in red.

"The particle barrier won't hold against Sendak's Ion Cannon forever," He revealed. "It's just like with the ships. The Galra's technology has advanced greatly during the last 10,000 years."

"Can we panic now?!" Kevin asked.

"No!" Marcus instantly replied. "We just have to figure out our plan of action. And…figure it out quickly!"

Tensions were running high. Everyone was beginning to feel the pressure of the situation and it was weighing them down. As they all struggled to come up with some kind of plan, Tony soon got an idea. Granted, it wasn't an idea that he particularly liked, but it was one that might get them all out of this situation alive. Because of that, he promptly revealed what it was.

"I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day."

"I second that plan!" Kevin instantly stated. "I mean, we did everything that we could, but we couldn't find all the lions. We gave it the good old college try, but we couldn't do it. We only have 3 so we can't form Voltron! I mean, I guess we can form some kind of snake…or maybe a worm."

Tony took a moment to ponder what Kevin just suggested they do with the lions. The thought of using them to form some kind of snake/worm seemed pretty off putting, especially when compared to a mechanical warrior like Voltron. He then started to wonder if his friend was being serious or just messing around. In the end, he knew that it didn't matter.

"It's decided," He said as he walked over towards Erina. "Princess, you come ride with me. One of you take the old guy."

Erina and Dardarian each stared at Tony with different expressions on their faces. While the princess simply looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face, the vizier seemed rather upset. His anger was mostly directed at Tony's comment about him being old. Just being he's been in cryo-sleep for the last 10,000 years doesn't mean that he was old. In his mind, Dardarian considered himself to still be quite young.

While that was going on however, Felecia simply shook her head in disagreement while Sasuke let out a noticeable sigh. The two of them found Tony and Kevin's suggestion to run away to be quite foolish, if not cowardly. They then immediately stepped up and revealed what they truly thought about it.

"We can't just abandon, Arus!" Felecia pointed out. "The Galra we'll just keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until they get what they want. We have to stop them!

"…Okay," Kevin replied, realizing that Felecia was sort of right in her statement. "So what we do what we did when he found the Blue Lion. We run then maybe Sendak will follow after us and leave the planet alone. Then we can form the Voltron worm thing and blast off out of here."

"Sendak could just destroy the planet and come after us anyway," Sasuke coldly pointed out. "Staying and fighting is our only option!"

"Here's an option..." Tony said as he turned to face Sasuke. "Shut your mouth!"

Upon hearing Tony say that to him, Sasuke snapped for a moment. The young man was already having a hard time dealing with Tony and his disrespectful comment was the final straw. As a result, he angrily grabbed a hold of his shirt and immediately pulled Tony towards him. However, Tony refused to back down and simply returned Sasuke's glare with one of his own.

"You got a problem with me, you bastard?!" Sasuke questioned.

"Yeah!" Tony truthfully revealed. "I've had a problem with you for a long time!"

The two of them were about to come to blows, but Marcus thankfully stepped in and stopped them both before it came to that. As he tried to keep them separated, he then noticed that both Felecia and Kevin were now arguing with one another.

"We're staying!" Felecia angrily declared.

"We're leaving!" Kevin frighteningly replied.

When he saw the two of them, Marcus prepared to make his way over to the two and get them to stop fighting as well. However, just as he did so, he saw that Sasuke and Tony were at each other's throats again. There were now 2 sets of fights going on and Marcus was having a hard time mediating the situation. To make things even more complicated, Marcus knew that both sides had a valid point and even he didn't know what was best. As a result, the young man did the only thing that he could do.

"Guys…Enough!"

In response to his angry declaration, everyone watched as Marcus's Galra arm started glowing a violent purple color. They then saw how upset he was with everyone as their constant arguing wasn't making this situation any better. Because of that, they immediately stopped their petty fights. Once he saw that, Marcus began to calm down, causing the glow in his arm to quickly fade away. He then faced Erina, looking at her with a concerned look on his face.

"Princess Erina, what should we do?" He asked. "These are your lions and you've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think the best course of action should be?"

After listening to Marcus's question, Erina took a moment ponder it. If they decided to run, then the Galra could destroy Arus and any potential planet they encountered in their pursuit of the lions. However, if they decided to stay and fight, then they run the risk of losing everything. The situation was dire and her options were limited. In the end, the princess said the only thing that she could say.

"I…I don't know…"

As Erina gently put her head down, Dardarian looked over at his princess and saw how disappointed she was in herself. Despite her royal pedigree, the fact remained that she was just a young woman who was only the equivalent of a 19-year-old Earthling. Forcing such an impossible task upon her shoulders was simply too much for Erina to bear. Dardarian noticed this and decided to call upon someone who could possibly help.

"Perhaps…your father could help."

Turning her head, Erina stared at Dardarian with a confused look on her face. How could her father possibly help them? After all, King Alfor died when Altea was destroyed over 10,000 years ago. She was about to question her vizier about this, but stopped when Dardarian had her follow him into another section of the castle.

After about 5 minutes of walking, the two Alteans arrived at their destination. It was completely dark chamber and the only lights that were on were being powered by some kind of strange console in the middle. As she made her way towards the console, Erina questioned Dardarian about this place.

"Dardarian…What is this?"

"King Alfor was well aware that there was a chance that he'd never see you again," Dardarian revealed. "So, before he put you into cryo-sleep, he had me insert his memories, his very being, into this computer."

As Erina slowly made her way towards the console, somehow finding herself drawn to it, the young woman watched as a small glowing orb appeared in the middle of the console. Upon touching it, the ball instantly exploded and the room that the princess was in suddenly began to change. Now, instead of being inside of a dark room, Erina was now looking at a beautiful flower field with large mountains standing in the distance. It looked like she was back on Altea, long before the war against the Galra began.

Then, as she continued to marvel at this nostalgic sight, Erina looked over back at the control console and saw something materialize above it. To her utter surprise, a holographic image of King Alfor appeared before her. When she saw it, tears of joy began to fill the princess's eyes.

"Papa…" She said as she slowly walked towards the hologram. "Papa…Is it really you?"

"Yes Erina," The AI confirmed. "It's really me. Oh, how I missed you."

His voice, his face, and even his mannerisms were all King Alfor's. Erina would recognize them anywhere and so she knew that this holographic AI that was standing before her truly was her father. This caused a small smile to appear on her face as tears slowly began to fall from her eyes.

For his part, King Alfor simply looked at his daughter with a sad expression on his face. Upon being activated, the AI scanned the computer logs inside the Castle of Lions and immediately knew the current situation. Because of that, he was aware of the lost of Altea, Zarkon's rule of the universe, and the predicament that Erina was now finding herself in. He then watched as Erina fell to her knees, her expression changing to one of joy to one of sadness and fear.

"Papa, I'm so frightened…" She revealed. "A Galra ship is set to attack and I don't know what to do. Please papa…I need your help."

"It was never my wish to place such a heavy burden upon you," Alfor responded. "And if it were within my power, I would gladly relieve you of it."

Erina felt a bit of comfort from her father's words. She knew that the only thing that exceeded King Alfor's strength was his compassion. Still, the fact remained that the king truly wasn't here with her and that Erina still wasn't sure what her course of action should be.

"I don't know if we should run, to preserve what we have…or stay and risk everything. I want to fight…but the Paladins of old are gone and I'm not sure if the new ones, these Earthlings, are good enough. What would you do?"

"…I scattered the Lions of Voltron to keep them out of Zarkon's hands," King Alfor explained. "You urged me to keep them and fight, but for the greater good of protecting the universe…I chose to hide them."

As she continued to listen to her father, Erina was slowly beginning to wonder if he was right. Even she did wanted to fight, the fact remained that this situation was nearly impossible to overcome. If Zarkon got his vile hands on Voltron, then everything that King Alfor fought and died for would be for nothing. Erina couldn't live with herself if that were to happen.

"…I think I finally understand now." She said as she sadly put her head down.

"No daughter…you were right."

Surprised, Erina's eyes open widely as she lifted her head back up and looked at her father. She then listened very closely to what he had to say next.

"In my fear, I made a terrible mistake, one that cost the universe billions of lives. Forming Voltron is the only way to stop Zarkon. You must be willing to sacrifice everything to assemble the lions and lead the new Paladins…in order to correct my greatest error."

* * *

Back in the central room of the Castle of Lions, Marcus and the others were busy waiting for Erina to return. It's been about 30 minutes since she and Dardarian left and they were all becoming a bit concerned. Eventually, as the group continued to wait, they started to hear two sets of footsteps coming from the distance. The first set of footsteps belonged to Dardarian, who promptly stepped to the side and proceeded to bow. Once he did, Erina then entered the room, now dressed in a new look.

Instead of the beautiful dress that she was wearing earlier, the princess was now in a full body suit with a white, blue, and pink color scheme. And her hair, which was originally down and flowing, was now tied up in a braided bun. As everyone stared in awe of her, Erina looked back at the Earthlings with a determined look on her face.

"Whether by fate or by coincidence, you 5 were brought here for a reason," She started off. "The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon and his empire. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe's only hope. We…are the universe's only hope!"

As they listened to Erina's speech, the young Earthlings felt a sudden surge of power building up inside of them. They were no longer looking at the uncertain princess from a few moments ago. Now, they were looking at a determined princess who knew what she had to do. Seeing that gave them a needed boost in confidence, prompting each of them to look back at Erina with their own looks of determination.

"We're with you, Princess Erina!" Marcus declared.

"Good…because at this moment, you 5 have officially become the new Paladins of Voltron!"

Following Erina's christening, the princess proceeded to lead her new Paladins into another section of the castle. When they finally arrived, the group took noticed of 5 chambers. Each chamber contained a suit of armor and helmet. The armors looked practically the same, with the exception that it had a different color that went along with its white plating. These colors were Black, Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow, the same colors as the Lions of Voltron.

"These are your suits of armor," Erina revealed. "Aside from the added protection they'll grant you, the armor will officially identify you as Paladins. Please wear them with honor and pride."

As they each made their way towards their respective armor, each of the Paladins were extremely impressed by how they looked. Although Kevin, being rather big, was initially concerned that his armor might be a bit too small for him, his fears were quickly eliminated. Although the armor seemed rather hard and sturdy, it was also quite flexible. Because of that, Kevin saw that it could indeed fit him quite comfortably.

While this was going on, Dardarian looked at the Earthlings for a moment before making his way towards Erina. Although they've managed to retrieve 3 of the Voltron Lions, the vizier still wasn't quite sure if they had the makings to be Paladins. Because of that, he wanted to make sure that Erina was truly making the right decision.

"Princess, are you sure about this? They aren't exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer."

"…I know," Erina answered truthfully. "But the Lions chose them. I must have faith in their wisdom. Besides…their all we got."

As she looked on at the Earthlings, Erina was a bit conflicted about the fact that she was pushing them to become the saviors of the universe. Despite that though, she remembered her words about needing to lead them if they wanted any chance of defeating Zarkon. Even if they weren't ideal, Erina had to stick by them because, as she just said, they're all she's got.

Eventually, the new Paladins proceeded put on their armor. After about 3 minutes, all 5 of them were suited up and turned back around to face Erina. It was at that moment that the princess placed her hand upon a table. This caused the surface of the table to open up and reveal 4 handle-like devices, each with a different color; red, blue, yellow, and green. The Paladins then watched as the objects floated up into the air and began making their way towards the Paladin whose color it matched up with.

"The Bayard, the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron," Erina explained. "By simply focusing your mind it will take a distinct shape, forming a weapon that best compliments you and your particular fighting style."

Upon grabbing their respective Bayards, the 4 Paladins watched as they began to light up and change shape just like the princess said it would. For Kevin, his Bayard transformed into a yellow and white cannon. Tony's transformed into a blue and white laser blaster, something that he quickly became fond of. Felecia's Bayard transformed into a green and white fighting staff while Sasuke's transformed into a red and white sword. In addition to all of this, the 4 of them also discovered that their suits allowed them to summon an energy shield, which paired well with their Bayards.

While the 4 began testing out their respective weapons, Marcus looked over and saw that there wasn't a Bayard for him. Noticing this, Erina put her head down for a moment before making her way towards the Black Paladin. She then looked at him before stating the reason why the leader of Voltron doesn't have a personal weapon of his own.

"I'm sorry, Marcus. But your Bayard was lost with its original Paladin."

"…It's alright," Marcus replied, understanding the situation. "I guess I'll just have to make do without one."

Upon seeing Marcus give her a reassuring smile, Erina gently nodded her head, thanking him for understanding. She then got ready to head back to the control room so that she could go over the current situation in greater detail. Marcus, Sasuke, Kevin, and Felecia followed closely behind, but Tony was lagging a bit due to him marveling his blaster. He then took notice of Felecia's staff and began to snicker to himself, something the Green Paladin took notice of.

"Is something funny?" She questioned.

"No, it's nothing." Tony answered. "It's just all of us got awesome weapons while you got…a stick."

Snickering to himself again, Tony found it very amusing that something as tough as nails as Felecia would manifest a stick as her personal weapon. Not particularly fond of being made fun of, Felecia took the end of her staff and hit Tony right in the gut. The blow immediately knocked the air out of him, causing the Blue Paladin to fall to his knees as he gasped for air. Felecia then went on to snicker herself as she watched Tony.

"Yeah…I did get a stick."

Wanting to prove to Tony the value of her new weapon, Felecia took a moment to skillfully twirl it around like a baton. Once she finished, the young woman mentally changed the weapon back into its Bayard form before watching it disappear into her armor. She then continued on her way to the control room while Tony slowly picked himself up and followed closely behind.

Once everyone was in the room, Erina had Dardarian pull up a schematic of Sendak's battleship. It detailed everything, ranging from its size to how many weapons it had. The most notable thing however was the ion cannon, which was again highlighted in red.

"Our first order of business is retrieving the Red Lion from Sendak's ship," Erina stated. "We won't be able to free the Black Lion from the castle unless the 4 remaining lions are present."

"That's a pretty big ship," Sasuke replied, stating the obvious. "How are we going to find the Red Lion?"

"…Well, it's not a matter of we, but a matter of you." Felecia pointed out.

Sasuke glanced over at Felecia with a confused expression on his face. The Red Paladin didn't get what she meant by her statement. Fortunately, both Kevin and Tony were able to validate her claim.

"Felecia's right," Kevin started off. "Once you're inside, you'll be able to feel the lion's presence and track it down."

"Yeah…" Tony followed. "You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert. I initially thought you were out of your mind, but it turns out it's exactly like that mumbo jumbo."

Looking over at Tony for a moment, Sasuke recalled the time the group was searching for the Blue Lion while back on Earth. While he did sense the energy that was coming from it, that energy only grew more intense when Tony was nearby. Since that's the case then perhaps the Red Lion will react the same way when he gets onboard Sendak's ship. Before he could think about it further however, Erina started talking to him directly.

"Sasuke, remember," She told him. "Out of all the lions, the Red Lion is the most temperamental. You'll have to earn its respect if you want to be its pilot."

Upon hearing the princess say that to him, Sasuke stared at her for a moment before gently nodded his head. The Red Paladin understood his task and was determined to accomplish it no matter what. Once that was established, Marcus gently placed his hand upon Sasuke's shoulder as he addressed all of the Paladin.

"Alright…Here's our plan of attack."

* * *

Hovering just above Planet Arus, Sendak and his battle fleet were busy awaiting Princess Erina's answer. It's been shortly after an hour since the demand was made and the Galra was quickly losing their patience. Believing that the last princess of Altea wasn't taking him seriously, Sendak was prepared to fire a warning shot in order prove that he wasn't playing around. However, before he could give the order to do so, Sendak noticed that something had just left Arus's atmosphere and was heading straight towards his ship.

Upon giving the order to one of his sentry drones to activate the ship's visual magnifier, Sendak saw that the objects approaching him was none other than the Blue and Yellow Voltron Lions. Prior to his arrival, the commander had received the report that the Yellow Lion was discovered and taken away, so he wasn't too surprised that the Paladins had it. He then noticed that he was receiving a hailing signal, which he decided to answer. When he did, Sendak watched as Tony's face appeared on his ship's view screen.

"Attention Galra ship!" The Blue Paladin addressed. "Do not fire! We are surrendering the princess and our lions to you. Repeat! We are officially surrendering to you!"

Sendak stared at Tony and saw that the young man had a silent expression on his face. He wasn't able to read whether he was sincere in his claim or was simply lying to him. In either case, before he could question him, Tony promptly terminated communications. Once he did, the Blue Paladin let out a loud sigh of relief. He then started typing on his lion's dashboard.

"…Let's hope this works."

As Tony and Kevin slowly waited for Sendak's reply, the Green Lion was silently making its way towards the ship from its blind spot. Since the Galra already knew that they had both the Blue and Yellow lions, Marcus believed that they could be caught off guard by since they didn't know that they also had the Green Lion. Because of that, Marcus decided to exploit the enemy's lack of knowledge to his advantage.

Once the Green Lion was on the ship's underbelly, Marcus, Sasuke, and Felecia all got out. Thanks to their armor, they were able to safely breathe and move around in space without any problems. Sasuke then went on to summon his Bayard and transform it into its sword form. He then cut a small hole into the ship, one large enough for his comrades to get inside, but small enough that the scanners won't be able to notice.

While Marcus, Sasuke and Felecia were making their way inside the ship, both Tony and Kevin were nervously waiting for Sendak to respond. The two haven't heard anything from the Galra commander and were starting to become concerned, especially the Yellow Paladin. In time however, they watched as a part of the ship began to open up.

"Activate the tracker beam." Sendak declared from his control room.

Complying too their commander's order, Sendak's men pressed down on several buttons on their respective dashboards. This caused a bright purple light to quickly build up from the opened section of the ship. Tony and Kevin quickly took notice of this action, prompting them to firmly grip the control handles of their respective lions.

"What is that?" Kevin questioned.

"It's doesn't matter what is," Tony replied. "We got to move!"

Just as a powerful laser beam shot out from the Galra ship, the two Paladins quickly maneuvered their lions out of the way. When Sendak saw this, the commander clinched his fist slightly in anger.

"I knew it," He said, having suspected that this was some kind of setup. "Launch the fighters!"

Almost immediately, one of Sendak's men gave the order for the Sentry Drones to launch the fighter ships. When they did, Tony watched as several dozen spacecrafts shot out from the main ship and began making their way towards him and Tony. It was at that moment that the Blue Paladin knew that the next stage of the plan was now in motion.

"Kevin!" He called. "You find a way to dismantle the Ion Cannon. I'll cover you and make sure that these guys don't get in your way."

"Um…Right!" Kevin nervously acknowledged.

With their respective tasks now set, the two Paladins raced off in order to accomplish them. This resulted in a massive firefight as dozen upon dozen of Galra ships attempted to shoot down the Blue and Yellow Lions. As he looked on from his ship, a small smile slowly appeared on Sendak's face. A part of him was happy that the Paladins were resisting as it would make capturing them all the more satisfying. To that end, he put more pressure on them by sending out even more fighters.

Meanwhile, Marcus and his group had successfully made it inside the ship. Using the schematics that were downloaded into their suits wrist communicators, the three of them saw that they were on the lower levels. There was hardly any security this far down, which made walking around that much easier. However, just as they were about to begin their search for the Red Lion, something unexpected occurred.

For some reason, Marcus stopped walking and began staring down the hallway. As he did so, the Black Paladin started to feel a bit dizzy. He then had sudden memories flashes. One memory involved his detainment by the Galra while another memory had him being operated on. The intensity of each memory caused him a bit of pain, but it also caused a sudden realization to appear before Marcus.

"I've…I've been here before," He revealed. "After my crew and I were taken from the Galra cruiser on Kerberos…they brought us here."

Sasuke and Felecia stopped when they heard Marcus say that and looked at him with a shocked expression on her face. This was especially the case for Felecia as her eyes were widen completely and her jaw was slightly open. She then quickly made her way towards Marcus.

"If that's true…then that makes that your other crewmembers might be held captive here," She pointed out. "We got to rescue them!"

"…Felecia, we don't have time."

Felecia's eyes widen even more after hearing Marcus say that. She then watched as he put his head down for a moment before turning to face her.

"We have to find the Red Lion and get back to Arus."

"But we can't just leave prisoners here!" Felecia said, starting to shout.

"No one understands that more than me. But this is war and in war we have to make hard choices. Now let's get going."

As he turn around and walked off, Marcus started thinking about his crewmates on the Kerberos mission, Dr. Mitchell and Amrita. The three of them trained rigorously for it and in time, Marcus started to see them family. This was especially true for Dr. Mitchell, who was not only like a father to him, but also the one of vouched for Marcus to join the mission in the first place. If things were different, he would turn this entire ship upside down in order to find them. Unfortunately, that simply wasn't the case.

Despite his own feelings on the matter, Marcus knew that retrieving the Red Lion was more important than saving Dr. Mitchell and Amrita. If Voltron isn't brought back soon then everyone in the universe would suffer, and that was something the Black Paladin simply could not allow. Because of that, he pushed aside his own feelings and forced himself to continue on with his mission. However, Felecia had other idea.

"…No!"

Turning back around, Marcus saw Felecia glaring at him with an angry expression on her face. Not only that, but he also noticed that a few tears were forming around her eyes. He then listened as the Green Paladin revealed a shocking revelation.

"Do you remember you told me, back when were retrieving the Green Lion, about the girl Amrita Punjabi was dating?" She started off. "Well…it was me. I'm the girl that she was referring too!"

"You're…Amrita's girlfriend?" Marcus inquired.

"Yes! Ever since the Kerberos incident I've been frantically searching for any sign of her and that search led me here with you. I understand what you're saying, but I'm not going to give up when I'm this close! I won't!"

With that said, Felecia quickly turned herself and got ready to walk in the other direction. Even though she knew that her mission was to retrieve the Red Lion, the young woman didn't care. The entire reason why she's even here now is that she hoped to find any leads on Amrita's whereabouts. Now that she finally has one, Felecia was going to take it, regardless of the consequences. Thankfully, she wouldn't be going alone.

"I'm coming with you."

Stopping, Felecia turned around and saw that Marcus with staring at her with a determined look on his face. She could tell right away that something had just change as he was now agreeing to help search for the prisoners instead of focusing on the Red Lion.

"I remember where the prisoners are being held," He said before turning his head to face Sasuke. "Sasuke, you go find the Red Lion."

"By myself…?" Sasuke questioned.

"It's a minor change of plans. You'll be fine."

Placing his hand upon the Red Paladin's shoulder, Marcus gave Sasuke a reassuring nod. Although this wasn't part of the initial plan, Marcus had all the confidence in the world that Sasuke would be able to accomplish this task. As for Sasuke himself, the young man wasn't entirely sure that this was a good idea. However, he trusted Marcus and so he decided to have faith in his wisdom.

"Just remember what I always taught you, Sasuke. Patience yields Focus."

Understanding, Sasuke gave his mentor a slight nod, which in turned caused Marcus to give a small smile in return. Now that everything was settled, the Paladins rushed off into two groups as Sasuke began his search for the Red Lion while Marcus led Felecia to the section of the ship where all the prisoners were being held captive.

Eventually, after running around the ship for about 10 minutes, Sasuke encountered a fork in the road. He had no idea where each path led to, but he knew that he didn't have much time to ponder about it. From behind, Sasuke heard the footsteps of several Galra Drones. Knowing that he couldn't afford to be seen, the Red Paladin simply took a chance and decided to go to the right. He then ran through hall, making sure to hide whenever he heard the sounds of any of the drones nearby.

After about 5 minutes of running around however, something unexpected occurred. Somehow, Sasuke found himself back in the same fork in the road that he was at earlier. Initially confused at first, he quickly concluded that he went the wrong way and decided to go left this time around. Unfortunately, this didn't help him either as he soon found himself back at the fork only after a few more minutes of running. This irritated him, prompting Sasuke to punch the wall in front of him.

"Damn it! You've got to be kidding me!"

While gritting his teeth in frustration, Sasuke soon took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down. He knew that getting angry wasn't going to change things. If he wanted to find the Red Lion he had to keep his cool. This caused him to remember the advice that Marcus just gave to him.

"Patience…yields Focus."

As he closed his eyes, Sasuke began to clear his mind. He then remembered what Felecia, Kevin, and Tony said to him when they retrieved their respective lions. If he wanted to find the Red Lion he needed to feel its presence and so he reached out his mind in order to do so. Once he did, it take him long to get a response.

_Sasuke!_

He heard a voice in his head and Sasuke knew that it was the Red Lion. Although it was still pretty far away, the Red Paladin was still able to feel its presence from inside the ship. This prompted him to reopen his eyes and turn himself around. He then started running in the direction he initially came. After about a few more minutes of running, Sasuke found himself in hanger bay and looked on as the Red Lion was standing right in front of him, shielded in its particle barrier.

"Got you!"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_Sasuke has found the Red Lion, but much to his surprise the beast won't respond to him. As he struggles to figure out what's wrong, Felecia and Marcus continue their search for the prisoners while Tony and Kevin try their best to hold off Sendak and his forces. Can the Paladins somehow accomplish their respective tasks and finally gain control of all 5 lions? They'll soon have to because Sendak is losing his patience and is now prepared to destroy all of planet Arus._

_Next Time, Chapter 6: The Legend Reawakens – Part 2_


	6. Chapter 6

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 6**: _The Legend Reawakens – Part 2_

* * *

"Do it again, Dardarian! Activate the particle barrier!"

"Yes, Princess Erina!"

While Marcus, Sasuke, and the rest of the newly christened Voltron Paladins were busy trying to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak's Galra ship, Princess Erina and her loyal vizier are currently trying to get the Castle of Lions ready for battle. It's been over 10,000 years since it last saw any major action and the two of them wanted to make sure that everything was ready. Unfortunately, while they were testing out the weapons system, they ran into a problem with the castle's particle barrier.

When they first tried to activate the shields, Erina and Dardarian didn't notice anything happening and realized something was wrong. To that end, they spent the last 30 minutes making sure that everything was properly hooked up and that the power was running smoothly. Once they felt that everything was set, Dardarian activated the particle barrier again. Sadly, while the shield did surround the castle for about a moment, it quickly faded away.

"Quizknack!" Dardarian exclaimed. "What could it be this time?!"

As he began tugging on his beard in frustration, Dardarian was wondering what else could be the problem. Without the particle barrier, the Castle of Lions will be completely exposed and certain death would await both him and the princess. He needed to do something to fix this, but had no idea how to go about it. Eventually, as Dardarian continued to contemplate this predicament, Erina was taking her own steps to solve the problem.

Making her way to the bridge of the castle, the last princess of Altea made her way to the control console that activated the particle barrier. After removing the outer plating, Erina looked inside the console in order to see if there was anything off about it. When Dardarian took notice of this, the vizier quickly made his way to the princess and went on to look inside the console as well. It was here that Dardarian finally saw what was wrong.

"Oh no, the barrier crystals are out of alignment!"

"We have to fix it immediately!" Erina pointed out. "Without the particle barrier we'll be defenseless!"

"But we're both too big, princess! What can we do?"

As the two Alteans tried to solve their currently problem, Erina picked up something thanks to her sensitive hearing. When she turned her head, the young woman noticed the 4 Space Mice that were inside her pod back when she was in cryo-sleep. Thanks to their smaller size, the mice were able to squeeze through the small opening inside the console and began moving things around.

When Dardarian saw this, the vizier was extremely worried that the mice might make things even worse than they already were. However, before he could reach in and stop them, Erina stopped Dardarian. She then pointed out to him that the mice were in fact trying to get the crystals back into alignment. Upon seeing this, Dardarian became confused by how the mice were capable to handling this complex machinery.

"How do they know how to do this?" He questioned.

"I'm not exactly sure," Erina answered. "But I can hear them talking to me. I think, because we spent the last 10,000 years sleeping together in the cryo-pod, our minds are connected."

Upon hearing the princess say this, Dardarian looked at her with a mixed expression on her face. Erina took notice of his looked and completely understood Dardarian's skepticism. After all, it seemed completely illogical that a couple of mice would have the intelligence to do something like this, even if their minds were connected to Erina's. But, that's exactly what's happening now and despite how illogical it seemed, Erina was very happy that it was.

Soon, after a few more minutes of working, the mice finished putting the final crystal in space. When he saw that, Dardarian activated the particle barrier one last time. After about 3 seconds of charging up, the Castle of the Lions was finally able to sustain the particle barrier, much to everyone's relief. Erina then watched as the mice exited out of the console and started cheering to themselves, causing the princess to smile.

"Thank you, little ones."

While continuing to look down at the mice, Erina noticed something next to her. Upon turning her head, her smile soon turned into an annoyed frown when she saw Dardarian stare directly at the mice while placing both of his index fingers at the side of his head. At first, the princess wasn't going to say anything as this was probably one of the vizier's antics. Unfortunately, the longer she continued to look at him, the more she felt the need to ask.

"Dardarian…What in the name of the ancients are you doing?"

"…I'm trying to get them to make me a sandwich," He answered truthfully. "I get hungry when I'm stressed."

Upon hearing her vizier say that, Erina let out a rather loud sigh as she began shaking her head in disbelief. Sendak and his forces could rain down upon them at any moment and Dardarian wanted the mice to make him a sandwich. If this was any other person, the princess would have given them quite an earful for having such an attitude. However, Dardarian wasn't just anybody and Erina has known him long enough that he was always like this. Because of that, she just slapped the back of his head, prompting him to get back to work.

Once that was done, Erina started making her way back to her station. As she did so however, the princess looked out through one of the castle windows and stared out into the sky. She was starting to worry about the Paladins as she hasn't heard anything from them for a while. Although she wanted to believe that they'll be alright, Erina simply couldn't help but be worried about them. This prompted her to clasp her hands together as she began praying for their safety.

"Please be alright…"

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Sendak's ship, Sasuke was busy marveling at the Red Lion as it sat in the hanger bay. From the moment he first laid his eyes upon it, the young man instantly felt a connection between himself and the lion. He felt drawn to it, like how Felecia and the other Paladins said he would be. If it were possible, Sasuke would've liked to spend a few more minutes just looking at the Red Lion. Unfortunately, he knew that time wasn't on his side.

At this very moment, both Tony and Kevin were doing everything within their power to hold off Sendak and his forces so that he could get to the lion. Not only that, but Marcus and Felecia were also taking the time to rescue all the captured prisoners that were on the ship, one of which might also include Felecia's girlfriend, Amrita. Everyone was trying their best to accomplish their respective tasks and Sasuke knew that he had to do the same. With that in mind, he quickly rushed towards the Red Lion.

Upon reaching the particle barrier that surrounded the mechanical beast, Sasuke gently placed his hand upon it. He remembered that the Blue Lion lowered its shield when Tony touched it and hoped that the Red Lion would do the same for him. However, as he continued to touch the shield, nothing seemed to happen. This soon prompted him to begin knocking on the shield.

"Open up," He said. "It's time to go."

Knocking on the shield again, Sasuke waited for a response from the lion, but nothing happened. This confused him somewhat and he began to wonder if something was wrong.

"Hey! It's me, Sasuke! I'm your Paladin! Open up, damn it!"

The Red Lion still didn't respond to Sasuke's words, angering the Paladin as he began banging on its shield even harder. As he wondered what was wrong with it, he recalled what Erina told him earlier about this particular Voltron Lion. She explained that it was extremely temperamental and that he first needed to earn its respect before he could properly bond with it. However, Sasuke didn't know how to do that and he soon discovered that he didn't have any time to figure it out either.

Just before he could knock on the particle barrier one more time, Sasuke suddenly heard something coming from behind and instinctively ducked towards the ground. Upon turning his head, the Red Paladin saw a small group of Galra drones, all of which were pointing their blasters at him. When he saw them, Sasuke immediately summoned the energy shield that his armor produces and used it to block the oncoming blaster fire.

"Damn it, Red!" He yelled at the lion. "Stop messing around! We got to go now!"

As he pleaded for the Red Lion to react to his presence, Sasuke became extremely disappointed when it still refused to move. Things were getting desperate and now wasn't the time to be stubborn or picky. The Red Lion has to know that, but still didn't do anything but sit there. This angered Sasuke greatly and, as he continued to be pushed back by the drones blaster fire, prompted him to take action.

With that, the Red Paladin placed his free hand to his side and summoned forth his Bayard. Then, after transforming it into its sword form, he rushed towards the drones at an incredible speed. The drone that was closest to Sasuke tried to intercept him by attacking the Paladin with its blaster, but Sasuke easily blocked that attack with his shield. He then used the opportunity to slice the robot clean in two with his sword.

"None of you are getting your hands on this lion!"

With determination in his heart, Sasuke rushed over towards the remaining drones and began to battle against them as well. Even though the Red Lion wasn't responding to him, he wasn't about to let the Galra continue to have it either. The universe needed Voltron back and Sasuke was fiercely determined to make that happen.

Eventually, just as he took down two more drones, Sasuke looked up and saw that another platoon of them were already here and ready to fight. At this rate, he knew that he needed to find some way to take care of the drone before they overwhelmed him. While trying to come up with something, he noticed a console next to him. Since he was in the hanger bay, Sasuke believed that the console activated the doors that allowed ships to go into space. This gave him an idea and although he knew it was a risk, he ultimately didn't have a choice.

To that end, Sasuke pressed a button on the side of his helmet, causing the visor that was shielding his eyes to completely cover his entire face. He then slammed his fist into the console, opening a hatch underneath him. Right away, all the drones were instantly sucked into the vacuum of space. Once all of them were gone, Sasuke struggled to close the hatch back up, but the vacuum was too strong and he soon found himself sucked outside as well. He then looked on in horror as the Galra ship was getting further and further away from him.

Thankfully, before anything could happen to him, Sasuke looked on as the Red Lion finally activated and rushed over towards him. It then proceeded to swallow the Red Paladin, shielding him from the infinite vacuum of space before making its way back towards the Galra ship. Although he wasn't entirely sure what caused the lion to finally respond, Sasuke was simply glad that it did. He then went on to sit down in the cockpit and placed his hands on the control sticks.

"Good kitty," He said with a smirk. "Let's roll!"

As Sasuke headed out to assist Tony and Kevin with dealing with the Galra fighters, Marcus and Felecia were still searching for the cell where all the prisoners were located. Although his memories were still pretty spotty, Marcus was confident that knew where he was going, prompting Felecia to simply go along with him. After about 5 minutes of running around, the two Paladins were finally within ear shot of the prison cell.

However, just before they could get any closer, a small pyramid-shaped Galra drone was hovering in the hallway right across from them. When it turned around, the drone instantly started scanning the Paladins and was about to send a message to the others about where they were currently located. Fortunately, Felecia reacted quickly and was able to stun the drone by shooting it with an electronic deactivator from his armor.

"That thing saw us!" Marcus pointed out. "We need to get of here before more show up!"

"Wait…" Felecia replied. "I think we can use this little guy."

Quickly making her way to the drone, Felecia opened its control panel and began tinkering around with its wiring. In almost no time at all, the lines on the drone's body started glowing with a light blue color just as Felecia closed its panel. She then watched as it started floating in front of both her and Marcus.

"Good. After a bit of tinkering and resetting its controls, this thing is now working for us."

"…Wow," Marcus said, impressed by what he just saw. "That was amazing, Felecia."

"Thanks…I think I'll call him Rover."

As Felecia looked on at Rover, the young woman let out a proud smile of accomplishment. Although her skills as a pilot were suspect, Felecia had absolute confidence in her engineering skills. In fact, back when she was at the Garrison, she was ranked second in her class when it came to that category. The only person who had better scores than her was Kevin, who was skilled enough to enroll based on his engineering skills alone. Now, with their newest companion in tow, Felecia and Marcus continued on their way to the prisoner cell.

After making their way down a few more halls, the two Paladins stopped in front of a door with green markings on the front. From his memories, Marcus was pretty sure that the prisoners were on the other end of the door. When Felecia took note of this, the young woman had Rover automatically deactivate the lock, allowing the two of them to go inside. Upon entering the room, Felecia starting frantically looking around for Amrita.

"Amrita…!" She called out too. "Amrita, are you here?! It's me, Felecia!"

While Felecia was busy calling out to her beloved, Marcus slowly entered the cell. Once inside, the Paladin looked on at several different alien species, all of which were wearing the same prison uniforms that he was wearing when he first landed back on Earth. He also noticed how frightened they all were, as some of them were even holding on to one another. Because of that, he slowly extended his hands to assure them that they meant no harm.

"Don't be afraid," He said in a calm tone of voice. "We're here to help you escape."

As the aliens continued to look on at the Paladins with skepticism, one of them took notice of Marcus. Although he didn't recognize him at first due to the armor that he was wearing, he did recognize his voice. Because of that, all of his eyes suddenly lit up.

"It's you…" He said in near disbelief. "It's you, the Champion. If anyone can get us out of here, he can."

"…Champion?"

Confused for a moment, Marcus looked on as all the expressions that were on the aliens faces suddenly began to change. Now, instead of looks of fear and despair, they had looks of hope and relief. He then started to wonder what the alien meant by Champion and why he referred to him as such. Because he could ask him what he meant though, Marcus noticed that Felecia was beginning to make her way out of the cell.

"We don't have much time," She said in a disappointed tone. "Let's get to the escape pods."

Without a moment's thought, Felecia raced out of the cell and began to follow Rover to the section of the ship where all the escape pods were located. When he watched her leave, Marcus noticed a few tears in her eyes, indicating to him that she wasn't able to find Amrita. Knowing that trying to comfort her now would be pointless, the Black Paladin reluctantly let his teammate go before turning his attention back towards the prisoners.

"Let's go everyone," He told them. "We have to hurry."

Right away, all of the prisoners immediately complied with Marcus's request and began making their way out of their holding cell. They then raced after Felecia, who was still following after Rover. After a few minutes of running, they eventually arrived at another one of the ship's hangers. Inside was a sole escape pod, which Rover proceeded to open on Felecia's command. The two Paladins then went on to help each of the prisoners get inside the pod and safely secure them.

Once all the prisoners were inside, Felecia began typing in the coordinates so that the escape pod will make its way to the Castle of Lions on Planet Arus. As she was doing that however, both she and Marcus suddenly heard a loud thumping sound coming from behind them. When they turned their heads, they watched as a small squad of Galra drones was making their way towards them.

"Halt!" One of the drones said in a monotone voice.

As the drones prepared to fire upon the group with their blasters, Marcus got in front of them and braced himself for a fight. However, at the exact moment that raised his arms in preparation, Marcus noticed that his right arm was beginning to glow with a dark purple color. It was the robotic arm that the Galra installed into him back when he was their prisoner. Somehow, it was reacting to these drones and it was causing him a great deal of pain as a result.

When Felecia saw this, the young woman became extremely concerned and immediately stopped her work in order to check up on Marcus. But, before she could do anything else, she watched as Marcus suddenly jumped up and raced towards the drones. One of the robots fired its blaster at him, but Marcus easily blocked it with his hand before cutting its head off. He then went on to take down two more by slicing at their feet before finally taking down the last one by punching a hole right in its gut.

With the battle over, Marcus looked down at his arm and saw that the glow was quickly fading away. As he stared down at it, Felecia walked up to him with a look of amazement on her face. What she just saw was absolutely amazing, prompting her to compliment the Black Paladin for his skill.

"Marcus, that was amazing!" She said. "How'd you learn to fight with that?"

"…No clue."

In all honesty, Marcus had absolutely no idea how managed to do what he did. For a moment, it was like his entire body was on auto pilot and that he was simply along for the ride. He also didn't know what to make of it, mostly because he wasn't sure if having this robotic arm was a blessing or a curse. In the end though, Marcus decided to put those thoughts in the back of his mind. Right now, all that mattered was making sure that these former prisoners got to Arus safely.

To that end, Felecia got back to work and finished typing in the rest of the coordinates. Once she was done, the doors to the escape pod closed and the ship got ready to take off. Before it left however, the alien the first recognized Marcus walked up to the door and began waving at him with a warm smile on his face.

"Thank you…Marcus."

Once again, Marcus was caught off guard by the alien's words. How'd he know his name and why did he refer to him as Champion earlier? He was about to question him about it, but the pod immediately shot itself out into space and began making its way towards the planet. Upon seeing that, Marcus was a bit disappointed that he wasn't able to get his questions answered. However, he soon realized that there will be time for that later. Right now, both he and Felecia needed to make their way back to the Green Lion, which they quickly proceeded to do.

Meanwhile, back out in space, both Tony and Kevin were busy still engaging with Sendak's fighter ships. It's been about 15 minutes since their friends infiltrated the cruiser and the Blue and Yellow Paladins have been doing everything within their power so that Sendak will focus all of his attention of the two of them. Fortunately, this was fairly easy because while Tony was dealing with the fighters, Kevin was trying to take down the cruiser's ion cannon.

"How are you holding up, Kev?!" Tony asked as he blasted another ship.

"…Been better," Kevin replied.

As the Blue Lion took down 3 more ships with a single laser blast, the Yellow Lion was racing towards the ion cannon. However, just before it could reach it, an invisible force field intercepted it and pushed the lion back. The resulting knock back, violently shook up the lion, causing Kevin to feel nauseous again. Thankfully, the young man was able to hold it in.

"Come…C'mon, dang it! Why won't thing break?!"

Growing increasingly irritated with the situation, Kevin had the Yellow Lion fire a concentrated laser blast at the ion cannon, only to watch as the force field blocked the attack. This resulted in a stalemate that lasted for quite a while, something Kevin knew wasn't good. He needed to find a way to break through this pesky force field and get to the ion cannon, but didn't know how to go about it. But, after watching the field deflect another one of the Yellow Lion's attack, a thought suddenly popped into Kevin's head.

From what he could tell so far, Kevin noticed that the force field was absorbing any kinetic energy that it was struck with. While noting that it was a good defense, he also noted that no matter how much energy any shield could absorb, there was a limit to how much it could actually withstand. Because of that, Kevin decided to not use several different attacks, but instead one continuous one.

"Alright…Here goes nothing!"

With some help from the Yellow Lion, Kevin was able set full power to its lasers and fired off a powerful blast from its tail. Like before, the force field absorbed the attack, but Kevin kept on going. After a while, he noticed that the field was beginning to crack under the constant pressure of the blast. Then, after a few more seconds of waiting, Kevin watched as the force field was finally destroyed.

"Yes! It worked!"

Once the force field was gone, Kevin immediately raced over towards the ion cannon and managed to put a major dent in it thanks to the incredible strength of the Yellow Lion. He then jump back and got a good look at his work. Although he was unsure whether or not he could actually pull it off, Kevin was happy to see that he was able to successfully accomplish his part. He then looked on as two objects started racing towards him from the other end of the ship.

To Kevin's joy, the young man saw that the objects approaching him was both the Green and Red Lions respectively. Marcus, Felecia, and Sasuke were successful in their mission and were beginning to make their way back down to Arus. This prompted him to go about doing the same thing.

"You guys made it!" He exclaimed.

"That's right!" Felecia replied.

"Let's get back to the castle!" Sasuke insisted.

As the 3 lions started flying towards the planet, Tony took notice of all of them and got ready to do the same. Before he did so however, the young man decided to have one last bit of fun and launch a laser blast at Sendak's ship. Although the attack didn't do much damage to the ship, it did knock it around quite a bit, much to the Blue Paladin's satisfaction. He then joined the others as they flew down to Arus.

Meanwhile, on the bridge of his ship, Sendak was busy clinching his sharp teeth in frustration. Not only did the Paladins refuse to hand over the lions they possessed, but they also had the audacity to infiltrate his ship and steal the Red Lion from his grasp. When he saw that, Sendak was so insulted by their actions that he ruthlessly murdered one of his own men in frustration. He then turned his attention towards the others, who were all looking back with silent looks on their faces.

"Follow after them!" He demanded. "Either we get those lions or we blow that planet to cosmic dust! Fire the ion cannon!"

"Sir, the ion cannon has been damaged!" One of the soldiers pointed out.

"Then send the drones to fix it!"

Saluting in compliance, half of the Galra soldiers operated the ship and began directing it towards Arus while the remaining half went with the drones to repair the damaged ion cannon. While this was going on, Sendak was angrily looking staring through the view screen while on the bridge. As he stared at Arus, the commander started clinching his robotic fist in anger, causing sparks of purple energy to erupt from it.

"Victory…or Death!"

* * *

Back on Arus, Sasuke and the others were busy in one of the deepest chambers inside the Castle of Lions. All of them, with the exception of Marcus, were busy inside their respective lion as they stood in front of a large door. As for Marcus himself, he was in front of the lions, waiting patiently for the door in front of him to open. After about a minute of waiting, something began to occur.

One by one, each of the lions started to light up as their bodies started glowing in an aura of their respective colors. As that was happening, the door that they were standing in front of started to glow as well. It then slowly opened up and, as Marcus looked on in amazement, revealed the Black Voltron Lion. With its red wings, black and yellow markings, and golden horns, the lion unleashed an ear deafening roar, which in turn prompted the remaining lions to roar in return.

As she looked on from the bridge of the castle, Erina let out a small sigh of relief. Despite the doubts and worries that she was having, the new Paladins were successful in the mission and now all 5 Lions were finally together. If things were different, this would be a joyous occasion, but Erina was quickly reminded that the hard part has only just begun.

At the same time that the Black Lion was finally unveiled, an alert suddenly sounded off throughout the entire castle. From the view screen, both Erina and Dardarian looked on in horror as Sendak and his Galra fleet were beginning to make their way down from the planet's atmosphere. Once they arrived, the two Alteans knew that they would bombard them relentlessly until they broke through their particle barrier and killed them all. Because of that, as she braced herself for what was to come, Erina activated the intercoms and gave a declaration to her new Paladins.

"Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere!" She revealed. "We need Voltron now!"

Upon hearing the princess, Marcus nodded his head and, with a determined look on his face, made his way inside the Black Lion. Once he was in and sitting down at his control station, the Black Lion responded to his presence and unleashed another roar. It then flew up through a tunnel as the remaining 4 lions followed close behind. They then made their way outside and landed in front of the castle. It was at that moment that Sendak's fleet finally arrived and began their assault.

Without a moment's hesitation, the fleet unleashed a devastating barrage of laser fire towards the Castle of Lions. Thanks to its particle barrier, the castle was able to withstand the first wave of the attack, but the Galra immediately responded to that by launching their second wave.

"Sir, the ion cannon is back online!" One Galra trooper declared.

"Fire!"

In response to Sendak's order, the soldiers charged up the ion cannon to full power. After about a minute, a powerful laser blast shot from the cannon and struck the particle barrier. Although the shield protected them from being blasted into dust, the resulting shockwave from the attack was still quite devastating in its own right. Once the attack finally came to an end, Dardarian checked the particle barrier's energy levels and saw that they were already depleting.

"Princess, the barrier gets weaker with every blast!" He revealed. "At this rate it's only a matter of time before the shield goes down and we're defenseless!"

"…Paladins!" Erina called out too. "Dardarian and I can keep the castle's defenses up for a while, but you have to form Voltron now or we'll all be destroyed!"

The Paladins all tensed up after hearing Erina say that to them. They were already under a lot of pressure and hearing all of that didn't help matters. Soon, Sendak's ship fired off another powerful blast from its ion cannon. Once again, the castle's particle barrier managed to block the attack, but it only ended up weakening the shields even more. When Marcus noticed that, the Black Paladin realized that it was now or never.

"Listen up, guys!" He said, addressing the rest of the Paladins. "The only way to succeed is to give it everything we got! I know things look bad, but I know we can do this! Are you all with me?!"

Knowing that they were all going to die if they didn't act, the remaining Paladins decided to stand by their leader and fight with him. As a result, they all nodded their head in agreement. Marcus, taking their silence as a yes, also nodded his head as he gripped the handles on his control sticks. He then took a deep breath before using all of his strength and pushing both sticks forwards.

"Then let's go!"

Lunging forward, the Black Lion made its way outside of the particle barrier and started heading towards Sendak's ship. Following right behind were the Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Lions. As they jumped off a large ledge and began running across the ground, a sudden realization came across the Paladins.

"Um…How exactly do we form Voltron?" Tony asked.

"Good question…" Sasuke followed.

"I don't see a combine into giant robot button anywhere on my dashboard," Kevin pointed out.

As several Galra fighter ships began firing down at the lions, each of the Paladins were trying to figure out how to form into Voltron while also doing their best to avoid being blasted. To say this was difficult would be a massive understatement as, for the most part, the Paladins were basically making things up as they went along. This was especially true for both Felecia and Kevin, the two most inexperienced pilots.

"This is insane!" Felecia said as she nearly avoided a laser blast. "Can't these guys just give us a few minutes so that we can figure this out?!"

Moving her control sticks to the left, Felecia had the Green Lion avoid an oncoming ship. Then, before it could get away, the lion bit down on it with its powerful jaws and threw it away. Once that happened, Felecia then attempted to stand her ground by firing upon several other Galra ships, but was ultimately forced to run away when they began to overwhelm her.

Meanwhile, as he attempted to distance himself from his attackers, Sasuke managed to take down two ships at once thanks to the Red Lion's tail laser. He then noticed a third ship locking on to him and attempted to take that one out too. However, before he could fire, the Yellow Lion suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and knocked both him and the Red Lion down.

"What the hell?!" He said angrily.

"Sorry…" Kevin replied, not meaning bump into his teammate.

The Yellow Lion put its head down in response to Kevin's apology, but immediately perked back up when both it and the Red Lion were fired upon again. This forced the two to run away, but both Sasuke and Kevin knew that doing this was only going to get them so far. They needed to do something and they needed to do it now.

Eventually, as the battle continued to grow more and more intense, the particle barrier surrounding the Castle of Lions began to weaken even further. It soon reached the point that it began to flicker in and out. When Erina noticed this, she knew that there wasn't any time left and that Voltron needed to be summoned now.

"Hurry Paladins!" She called over the intercoms. "One more attack and we're finished!"

Once he heard that, a desperate Marcus started doing everything within his power to try and find a way to form Voltron. However, nothing in his lion's dashboard gave him any hints and most of the ideas that he had didn't seem possible given the amount of time that they had left. Because of that, he decided to just go for broke and informed his teammates of what he just came with.

"Maybe if we fly in formation, we'll just combine!" He said. "Everyone, run towards that nearby cliff and take off on my cue!"

"Yes sir!" Tony responded.

With their orders given, the 4 Paladins followed their leader as they made their way towards the cliff that he was referring too. As he they got closer to it, each of the lions automatically prepared themselves to take flight.

"3…2…1…Voltron!"

After reaching the edge of the cliff, the 5 lions jumped off and began flying high into the air. At first, nothing seemed to be happening and Marcus started to wonder if his plan failed. However, he soon felt a strong tugging sensation coming from his lion. In addition, the other Paladins also felt the same tugging sensation coming from their lions as well.

"What's this feeling?" Tony questioned. "Are we forming Voltron?"

"I…I don't know…" Kevin answered. "But it feels like we're all being pulled in the same direction."

"…That's because we are," Marcus pointed out. "Look up!"

As they lifted their heads, the Paladins looked on in horror as Sendak's ship was hover just above them. Not only that, but it was releasing a powerful tracker beam at the lions, causing them to slowly make their way towards it. Although the Paladins attempted to do everything within their power to escape from the tracker beam, it was simply too strong as the more they struggled the more they became stuck.

Upon seeing this from the bridge of his ship, Sendak let out another fiendish grin. He knew that there was no way that the lions would escape from the tracker. This battle was over and now all that was left was to destroy the Castle of Lions.

"Send a report to Emperor Zarkon," He told one of his men. "The day is ours!"

With that said, the Galra cruiser fired one more blast from its ion cannon. This time, the castle's particle barrier wasn't able to withstand the sheer force of the attack and shattered as a result. With their only means of defense now gone, all Erina and Dardarian could do was look on in horror as the ship got ready to launch one final attack.

Meanwhile, the Paladins were still struggling to break free from the pull of the tractor beam. As he tried to come up with a plan, Marcus noticed the situation happening at the castle and knew that time was up. Something needed to be done now, but he didn't know what to do. Not only that, but the morale of his teammates was starting to falter as well.

"No, we're going to die!" Kevin screamed.

"This is it…" Felecia said in horror.

"We're doomed!" Tony exclaimed.

"…It's over." Sasuke pouted.

After hearing his teammates accept their fates, Marcus closed his eyes and became dangerously close to doing the same. But, just as he was about to give up, the Black Paladin suddenly heard a loud roar coming from inside his mind. As he perked up and wondered what it was, Marcus then noticed that someone was talking to him.

_You have to keep fighting!_

At first, Marcus had no idea who was talking to him, but soon realized that it was the Black Lion. It was encouraging him not to give up and to continue on with the fight. When he realized that, Marcus silently berated himself for giving in to despair so quickly. There was too much on the line for him to do that. Marcus knew that he had to win this battle and proceeded to convince his teammates to continue the fight as well.

"No!" He exclaimed. "We can do this! We have to believe in ourselves! We can't give up…because we're the universe's only hope! Everyone is relying on us! We can't fail! We won't fail! If we work together…we'll win together!"

As they listened to Marcus's speech, the helplessness that the remaining Paladins were feeling was gradually starting to disappear. Now, it was quickly being replaced with a sense of hope and determination. Marcus was right. Everyone was indeed relying on them. They had to keep fighting because everyone was going to suffer if they didn't.

"Sasuke, Felecia, Tony, Kevin…are you with me?!" Marcus asked.

"Yes sir!" The Paladins answered.

Grabbing their control sticks, all 5 Paladins pushed down on them and used all of their strength to try and get their lions to move. As they did so, each of their lions started glowing as they let out a powerful roar. They were responding to their Paladins determination, which greatly increased their power. In time, they were finally able to break free from the pull of the tractor beam after one massive push.

Once the lions were free, they immediately flew high into air and began to converge onto one another. The limbs of the Black Lion began to fold into itself as it sat up. Both the Red and the Green Lions did the same before rocketing towards the Black Lion. The two lions then attached themselves to Black, acting as a pair of arms. At the same time, the Blue and Yellow Lions folded up and transformed to a pair of makeshift legs, which attached themselves to the Black Lion as well. Once that was done, the face of the Black Lion suddenly opened up, revealing the image of a highly intimidating man.

Following this powerful transformation, they newly combined robot made its way towards Sendak's ship and immediately pushed the ion cannon upward. This caused the ion cannon to go off target and completely miss its attack. When Sendak saw what was going on, the Galra commander started to step back in fear. He knew what this robot was.

"Vol…Voltron…!"

Yes. The robot was none other than Voltron, the legendary defender of the universe. After over 10,000 years it has finally returned. As she looked upon it from her castle, Erina couldn't help but to shed a few tears of joy. It's been so long since she last witnessed its magnificence and it was still a sight to see.

As for the Paladins, all 5 of them were amazed by what they were able to accomplish. Somehow, someway, they managed to literally pull things together and summon Voltron. It was almost too good to be true, but it was the truth.

"I can't believe it!" Sasuke happily exclaimed.

"We formed Voltron!" Felecia followed.

"I'm a leg!" Kevin gleefully revealed.

"How are we doing this?!" Tony questioned with a playful smile.

As the 4 of them continue to marvel at their accomplishment, Marcus was simply looking on with a silent smile on his face. Although they cut it close, they were finally able to form Voltron. It was a huge relief to him, but Marcus knew that it wasn't over yet. Because of that, he confidently pushed both of his control sticks forward.

"I don't know…but let's get that cannon!"

Following that declaration, Voltron turned to the side and took a hold of Sendak's ion cannon. It then easily snapped the cannon off from the ship and tossed it to the side. Once it was gone, Voltron then proceeded to punch its right hand, which the head of the Red Lion, straight into the ship. Once it was inside, the lion unleashed a powerful blast of energy that not only destroyed anything in its path, but caused a massive explosion as well. Voltron then went to attack several other areas of the ship, causing to quickly break apart as a result.

Upon seeing this from the bridge, Sendak knew that it was only a matter of time before Voltron came from him as well. Although his pride as a Galra commander wanted him to stay and accept his fate, Sendak also knew that sometimes that playing the long game was the best way to achieve victory. Because of that, he swallowed his pride and took his top lieutenant with him as they hopped into an escape pod and rocketed off the ship towards a far off section of the planet.

Meanwhile, Voltron was nearly finished destroying the entirety of the Galra ship. All that was needed to finish the job was one final attack. With that in mind, the Paladins had the robot fly high into the air before having it dive back down at an incredible speed. This allowed Voltron pierce right through the ship like a giant spear. Once it safely landed on the ground, a massive explosion occurred and Sendak's ship was nothing more than a fiery cloud in the sky.

"We won!"

* * *

Back at the castle, the Paladins were busy resting by the front gate as they waited for both Princess Erina and Dardarian to arrive. As they caught their breath, each of them was thinking about what they just went through and how they got here to begin with. It's been a long 24 hours and so much has happened during that time. Still, none of them could've ever imagined that it would end like this. It was almost impossible to believe, but then again the Paladins just accomplished the impossible.

After a few more minutes of waiting, they noticed the castle gates beginning to open and saw both Erina and Dardarian making their way up to them. This prompted the Paladins to slowly pick themselves up from off the ground and stand side by side. Once she finally reached them, the princess said the only thing she could say during this particular situation.

"Well done, Paladins!"

"…Thanks pretty lady." Tony replied with a smile.

As the princess continued to congratulate the Paladins for their hard fought victory, Felecia was busy putting her glasses back on before looking up towards the sky with a solemn expression on her face. Although she was glad that they were able to defeat Sendak, her primary concern was Amrita and her current whereabouts. At this point she could be anywhere in the universe and while Felecia tried her best to keep her emotions in check, it was obvious that she was deeply worried for her beloved.

While she continued look up, Marcus took notice of Felecia's sadness and immediately walked over towards her. After taking off his helmet, the Black Paladin went on to gently place his hand upon her shoulder. Upon feeling it, Felecia looked up and saw Marcus give her a reassuring smile.

"We're not going to stop searching until we find her, Felecia." He told her. "But no matter where she is…I know she would be proud of you."

Marcus's kind words quickly lifted Felecia's spirits. As she smiled gently at him, the Green Paladin knew that feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to help Amrita at all. She had to stay strong if she had any intention of finding her and bringing her back home. With her resolve strengthened, Felecia nodded her head at Marcus as she silently thanked him for what he said.

Back with Erina, the young princess was still quite pleased with how all the Paladins performed during this battle. Soon though, as she looked and stared at the 5 Voltron Lions, a powerful realization washed over her. This caused her expression to gradually shift from one of happiness to one of anxiety. She then looked back at the Paladins and told them what was on her mind.

"We won the battle, but the war has only just begun," She started off. "I'm afraid Zarkon will not stop until he gets these lions."

"It's a good thing you Paladins know what you're doing," Dardarian followed. "Because you're going to have to form Voltron again and again."

"Right…" Kevin replied before fully realizing what he just heard. "Wait…What?"

The realization of what the princess and her vizier just said immediately caught the Paladins off guard. Tony then walked over to Dardarian as he freely voiced his opinion on the matter.

"Form Voltron again…?" He questioned. "But we barely survived forming Voltron this one time."

"And you only had to fight one ship," Dardarian pointed out. "Just wait until you have to fight an entire fleet of them. It's not going to be easy being the new Defenders of the Universe."

Another powerful realization rushed over the Paladins as listened to what Dardarian just said. Although it didn't really hit them before, the fact that their now the new Paladins of Voltron was finally settling in. While some of them were shocked and others were a bit frightened, Marcus simply let out a small smile.

"Defenders of the Universe…" He said as he turned to face the Voltron Lions. "That has a nice ring to it."

As the other Paladins joined him in staring at the lions, Marcus started thinking about all the events that led him to this point. Never did he expect that a simple mission to Kerberos would result in him battling an alien empire from the reaches of the universe and piloting a powerful machine like the Black Lion. It was almost impossible to believe, but it was the truth. Now, as the prospect of his new responsibilities became more apparent to him, Marcus couldn't help but to smile even more.

"This is going to be fun!"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_Life as a Paladin of Voltron is never easy and our heroes are about to find that out the hard way. Although they managed to summon the giant robot and defeat Sendak, the Paladins discover that they're unable to form Voltron again. What happened and what can they do to bring back Voltron?_

_Next Time, Chapter 7: Paladin Training_

**_Announcements_**

**Spirit Reader: **_Hey guys, it's Spirit Reader here. I hope you're liking how Voltron: Universal Defender is starting out. My friend Serpentdragon and I have worked hard on it and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing it. If you could, please leave a review for us so that we can hear your thoughts and opinions. We would really appreciate it._

**Serpentdragon: **_Hey everyone, this is Serpentdragon, Spirit Reader's writing partner for Voltron: Universal Defender. We both hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. I know we have followed the original episode of Voltron pretty closely thus far, but after this chapter, you'll start to see it take on more of its own path. We'll be following the story's broad strokes, but this will definitely be our own interpretation of the story. We're both huge fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender and hope that you guys will continue enjoy our take on this epic space fantasy._

**Spirit Reader:** _Well guys, that's it for now. We'll be off next week for story developments, so you can expect Chapter 7 to be out on either May 3rd or 4th. Until next time, this is Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon Signing Off!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 7**: _Paladin Training_

* * *

It's morning and the sun is slowly rising on Planet Arus. Only a few hours ago, a massive battle took place as Sendak, one of the Galra Empire's head commanders, attacked. His mission was a simple one; retrieve the Voltron Lions that were currently in the possession of Erina, the last princess of Altea. With his command fleet in tow, Sendak believed that this battle would be easy and victory was inevitable. Unfortunately for him however, things didn't go as simply as he thought.

Sendak greatly underestimated the force that he was fighting against, in particular the 5 humans that were working together with princess Erina. Together Marcus, Sasuke, Tony, Felecia, and Kevin fought hard and managed to retrieve all 5 of the lions. Not only that, but they were also able to come together and form the powerful super robot known as Voltron. With its power, the Paladins managed to easily repel Sendak's command ship and force the Galra commander to retreat.

With the battle won, the Paladins made their way back to the Castle of Lions, where Erina's loyal vizier, Dardarian, gave them each a room to sleep in. Each of the rooms were pretty standard, with just a single bed, a mirror, and a personal sink. Still, compared to what's given to cadets at the Galaxy Garrison, most the Paladins didn't seem to mind. They then wasted no time in getting some sleep as they were completely exhausted after the day's events.

As morning came alone, each of the Paladins was busy doing their own thing as the sun continued to rise. Marcus, who was in full Paladin armor, was doing pushups while inside his room. Sasuke was currently putting on his clothes after he just finished taking a shower. Both Tony and Kevin were still sleeping, the latter of whom was wearing headphones that was playing soothing music. The only who currently wasn't in their one was Felecia, who was in another section of the castle.

Right now, Felecia was in the cyro-chamber, observing all the Galra prisoners as they slept in their pods. After she and Marcus rescued them from Sendak's clutches, Dardarian took the prisoners to the cyro-chamber, which had the ability to heal the various injuries that they received while being held captive. Although she was told that it wouldn't take them long to recover, Felecia still waited for all of them to come out as she had plenty of questions to ask them.

When she and Marcus rescued the prisoners, Felecia remembered that one of them called the latter, Champion. From just that one word alone, Felecia realized that these prisoners knew Marcus back when was also held captive by the Galra. Because of that, then they could also know where Amrita is as she was captured at the same time Marcus was. Even though it was a long shot, these prisoners were the best chance Felecia had in finding some type of clue to Amrita's whereabouts and she had every intention of looking into it.

While all this was going on, both Erina and Dardarian were currently doing some maintenance on the Castle of Lions itself. The battle against Sendak did far more damage than they originally thought and they needed to get things repaired right away. In addition, due to the fact that the castle has been in stasis for the last 10,000 years, a good number of parts were worn out and needed to be replaced as well. There was a lot to be done and so little time to do it.

After several hours of working, Erina managed to get the majority of systems on the bridge back in working order. As she ran a diagnostic check on the remaining system, the princess took notice of the emergency alarm. With just one look, an idea popped into her head. Although Sendak was defeated, the battle against the Galra Empire has only just begun. The Paladins were still wet behind the ears and needed to be ready to fight at any time. This was a perfect opportunity to see just how prepared they can be.

With that thought in mind, Erina activated the alarm and a loud siren erupted throughout the entire castle. As it continued to sound, most of the Paladins immediately jumped up in shocked and wondered what was going on. The only exception was Tony, who was still sleeping peacefully thanks to the headphones that he was wearing. They then listened as Erina started talking over the intercom.

"_Everyone up, Zarkon's attacking!" _She yelled. _"Hurry, the castle is about to be destroyed!"_

Upon hearing those words, all of the Paladins made their way towards the bridge as quickly as possible. However, both Kevin and Felecia were falling behind due them both feeling drowsy. As for Marcus and Sasuke, the two of them were making good progress, but the later soon found himself lost due to him being unfamiliar with the castle's interior structure. Meanwhile, Tony was still sleeping peacefully in his bed.

After about 6 minutes of waiting, Erina looked around and saw that none of the Paladins were at the bridge yet. When she noticed that, the princess wondered if they saw through her ploy and decided to simply ignore her. Because she wasn't sure if that was truly the case, Erina decided to call out to them one more time.

"_Hurry Paladins! We can't hold out much longer!"_

Another 2 minutes had past and the Paladins still haven't arrived. This time Erina was pretty confident that they didn't believe her claims and ignored her because of it. When he noticed this, Dardarian walked over towards the princess and gently took a hold of the speaker that she was using.

"You have to sell it more, princess." He explained. "Here, allow me to demonstrate."

Dardarian went on to take some standard breathing exercises in preparations for his dramatic display. As he did so, Erina turned her head and saw that 4 of the Paladins were busy looking at the two of them with mixed expressions on their faces. Surprised by their sudden appearance, Erina tried to stop Dardarian before he could do what he was about to do. Unfortunately, she was too late.

"_Oh no!" _He screamed. _"Erina's head has been cut off! How could this have happened?! If only Voltron was here!"_

As the vizier continued to exaggerate, Erina glanced back over at the Paladins again and saw that they were becoming more and more confused by what they were seeing. This caused the princess to feel pretty ashamed and soon made her way over to Dardarian, who was now acting on his knees. After a failed attempt at talking to him, Erina promptly silenced her vizier with a swift slap to the back of his head. When Dardarian turned around and saw the Paladins looking at him, he started laughing nervously before quickly picking himself up from off the ground.

Once that was settled, an awkward silence occurred as neither side was sure who should start talking first. After about nearly 2 minutes of waiting, Marcus was the first to step up and say something about all of this.

"So…I guess this isn't an actual attack." He said.

"And it's a good thing it wasn't because it took you…" Before she could finish her sentence, Erina realized something and soon turned Dardarian. "How long did it take them, Dardarian?"

Pulling out a device from his pocket, Dardarian examined it for a second before revealing the time it took for the Paladins to arrive since the alarm first sounded.

"It took them 75 degrees!"

Instantly, everyone was confused by the vizier's revelation. Even Dardarian was quite shocked by what he just said and wondered if he got the readings wrong. Upon examining the device that he was holding, Dardarian soon became extremely embarrassed as he realized what was really going on.

"Sorry…I was actually reading a meat thermometer."

Upon hearing that, Erina nearly snapped and had to calm herself down by gently rubbing her dimples. She knew that Dardarian has always been like this and that getting angry with him wasn't going to help. Still, the last thing she needed to deal with right now was his antics as there was simply too much on her plate at the moment. Because of that, Erina took a few deep breaths before turning to face the Paladins again.

"No matter how long it was, it was too long." She said to them. "No matter the situation you must always be ready to face Zarkon. There's too much at stake for you not to be!"

As she walked up towards all of them, Erina examined each of the 4 Paladins very closely. Kevin was still in his pajamas while both Sasuke and Felecia in their casual clothes. The only one who looked prepared was Marcus and although that pleased Erina, she was still quite upset that others didn't follow his lead. Still, despite all of that, there was one Paladin that was upsetting the princess far more than the others.

"Where is Tony?!"

Just as the princess asked the question, the doors to the bridge suddenly opened up. When everyone turned to see who it was, they all looked on as Tony entered the room. He just finished washing up and looked rested and ready to start the day.

"Morning guys…" He said with a cheerful smile. "What's going on?"

As he casual made his way towards his teammates, Erina stared at the Blue Paladin with an annoyed expression on her face. It would be one thing if he came in all tired and exhausted, like Kevin and Felecia were, but that wasn't the case at all. Instead, Tony looked reinvigorated, almost like he didn't even hear the alarm at all. This annoyed Erina greatly as it strongly gave the impression that Tony wasn't taking this seriously at all.

"I've been up for hours trying to get the castle back in working order," She said to the group. "I wanted to run a test on the alarms and decided to test all of you as well. But with the exception of Marcus, the only one who bothered to put on his armor, the rest of you failed!"

"Hey….Hey princess," Kevin said as he yawning. "You've been asleep for the last 10,000 years. Just the other day I was back home on Earth. During that short span of time I've flown a giant alien cat thing, fought an evil warlord named Zarkon, and ate some strange Food-Goo. It's a lot to process."

"…I understand that, Kevin. But you all need to understand what's really at stake here. This isn't a game.'

Pulling out a holographic keyboard, Erina started typing on a select for keys. When she finished, the holographic map that she used the other day completely surrounded the bridge again. She then went on to type on a few more keys. As she did so, the Paladins watched as nearly all the stars that were being displayed on the map changed colors from blue to red.

"During the last 10,000 years, the Castle of Lions has picked thousands upon thousands of distress beacons from the following locations. The red spheres indicate a sector of the universe in which the Galra Empire has taken over. As you can see, Zarkon and his forces have taken over most of the known universe."

Upon hearing her say that, the reality of their predicament once again began to set over the Paladins. However, Erina wasn't done educating them yet and soon started to move the holomap to another section of the universe. Unlike the first one, this section had no red spheres at all, which meant that the Galra haven't reached it yet.

"Earth is here, in Sector 2814," Erina continued. "It's a relatively primitive section of space with barely any intelligent life, so the Galra haven't bothered to invade yet. But…the Blue Lion was located on your planet. So an attack on Earth is inevitable."

"Oh no…"

Just then, as the thought of Earth being attacked entered his mind, Kevin immediately started thinking about his family. The Yellow Paladin didn't truly comprehend what was at stake because a part of him felt that it didn't truly involve him at all. However, he soon realized that wasn't the case at all. If the Galra continued having their way, Earth was done for and everyone that Kevin ever loved would be killed, which frightened him immensely.

When Erina saw the look on Kevin's face, the young princess realized that her message was made clear. Although she didn't mean to scare him, but she wanted to fully convey to everyone what was really on the line. Now that she's done that, Erina waved her hand, causing the holomap to disappear.

"Our mission is to liberate all of those planets! Dardarian and I are getting the castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you 5 must learn how to reform Voltron…so that we can begin taking the fight to Zarkon!"

"…The princess is right," Marcus said with a determined look on his face. "Let's get to our lions and start training!"

* * *

Sometime later, Sasuke, Felecia, and Tony donned their armors and got in their respective lions. Then, after activating them and flying out of the castle's hanger bay, the 3 of them flew out and joined Marcus on the runway, who was already in his lion. The only one left was Kevin. Since he was also pretty slow when it came to things like this, due to teaming with him back at the Galaxy Garrison, both Tony and Felecia opted to give the Yellow Paladin a few more minutes. However, when those minutes came and went, the Paladins were starting to get a bit worried.

"Um…Should I go and get him?" Sasuke suggested.

Another 10 minutes passed and Kevin still hadn't arrived yet. Now losing his patience, Sasuke was about to head back to the castle and retrieve his teammate. Fortunately for Kevin though, he soon arrived with the Yellow Lion and joined the others on the runway.

"Sorry I'm late," He apologized. "Seriously…they need to readjust those zip lines and hover cycles."

The things that Kevin was referring to were the zip lines and hover cycles that allowed the Paladins to reach their lions from the castle. Using them was a lot faster than just running down to the hanger and getting into their lions manually. However, because he was a lot bigger than the rest of his teammates, Kevin's zip line couldn't withstand his weight and slowed him down significantly. Not only that, but upon reaching his hover craft, he also saw that he couldn't entirely fit inside. This made reaching his lion not only very difficult, but uncomfortable as well.

Still, what's done was done and now all 5 lions were together. With that, Marcus turned the Black Lion towards the exit of the runway. He then ran a minor diagnostic check to make sure everything was in working order. Once he saw that the lion's systems were running smoothly, the Black Paladin activated his intercom and started talking to his team.

"Alright guys," He started off. "The princess told me that in order to form Voltron we have to form a stronger bond with not only our lions, but with ourselves as well. So let's just fly in formation until we're totally in sync."

"Yes sir!" The Paladins yelled.

With that said, the Paladins simultaneously pushed down on their control sticks and launched their lions into the air. They then started flying around in tight formation, with Sasuke and Tony to the right of Marcus while Felecia and Kevin flew to the left of him. As they did so, the 5 of them focused themselves, hoping that doing so would help them to form Voltron like they did before. But, as they continued to fly all around Arus, they began to notice something.

For some reason, the lions weren't doing anything but fly around. They weren't coming together and forming Voltron like they did during the battle against Sendak. This was pretty odd as the Paladins were all focusing as hard as they could to form the powerful super robot. At first, Marcus simply believed that the team still wasn't entirely in sync and so he had them perform various drills while flying in their lions. However, even after 2 straight hours of this, no progress was being made.

"Well…Isn't this fun," Felecia sarcastically remarked. "Are we all having fun, guys?"

Everyone knew what Felecia actually meant when she said that, but decided not to say anything about it. Things were going nowhere as just flying around wasn't helping. Because of that, Marcus landed the Black Lion onto the ground and the other lions followed close behind. Once they all landed, the Paladins discussed their next course of action.

"Maybe we should be building Voltron." Sasuke said.

"What do you mean?" Kevin inquired.

"I mean we should be literally building Voltron. Like stacking on top of each other."

"So what…like a cheerleader pyramid?" Tony wondered.

"You got any better ideas?!" Sasuke angrily inquired.

As the Blue and Red Paladins glared at one another through their view screens, Marcus was busy pondering the latter's suggestion. At this stage, nothing that they were trying was working and Sasuke had the only idea that seemed to make sense. Because of that, the Black Paladin decided to go along with his teammate's idea.

"Well…It couldn't hurt to try."

With that said, Marcus ordered each of the Paladins to line up so that they can stand on top of one another. Given how Voltron is formed, the way that they should go about doing this should've been simple. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all. For some strange reason, Felecia was on the bottom next to Tony and Kevin found himself at the top, where Marcus was supposed to be. When he noticed this, Marcus immediately pointed this out to the Yellow Paladin.

"Kevin…What are you doing?" He asked. "You're suppose be the leg."

"What?" Kevin replied, slightly confused. "But I'm pretty sure that I was the head...right?"

"You were yelling that you were a leg."

"Yeah…But I was yelling a lot of things."

As the back and forth between them continued on for about another minute, Marcus let out a noticeable sigh. He could tell that Kevin wasn't really pleased about being a leg, even if it was to highly powerful super robot. Still, Marcus knew that it couldn't be helped. Unless there was an alternate way to build Voltron, the Yellow Lion will always be the left leg and the Black Lion will always be the body and head. With that, he convinced Kevin to let them build Voltron his way, to which the Yellow Paladin sadly relented too.

Once everyone was on the same page, the Paladins began to restack the lions again. This time, they were in the correct order with the Blue and Yellow Lions on the bottom and the Red and Green Lions in the middle. All that was left was the Black Lion, which Marcus was slowly getting ready to place on top.

"Okay…First the legs, then the arms…and now the head…"

After making sure that everything was just right, Marcus had the Black Lion gently get on top of the makeshift pyramid. He then closed his eyes closed his eyes and began to focus himself on one thing; Voltron.

"Alright everyone…feel the bond with your lions. Now channel your energies and focus it on forming Voltron."

Nodding their heads, the remaining 4 Paladins closed their eyes and tried to focus on becoming Voltron. They stayed this way for about 5 minutes, but noticed that nothing was happening. Even so, Marcus simply told them to focus even harder. Soon, another 5 minutes passed, but again nothing was happening.

"Is everyone channeling and focusing?" Marcus questioned.

"…Yeah." Felecia answered.

"What's going on here?" Tony asked. "Why was this so much easier before?"

As the Paladins had their lions sit back on the ground, they decided to take a break in order to figure out what was going on. They were able to form Voltron before, but for some reason they're unable to do so now. It caused them to wonder if there was something wrong with themselves or with the lions that was causing this to happen. While trying to determine that, Erina suddenly appeared on each of their respective view screens.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help." She told them. "Yesterday you weren't able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle."

"Yeah…You're right." Marcus replied.

"Perfect…because I need to run a diagnostic check on the castle's defenses. This should help."

Once that was said, Erina started pressing down a few keys on the castle's holographic touchpad. When she finished, an alarm suddenly sounded off and several lasers shot down from the castle and started firing down on the lions. This caused the Paladins to scramble as they tried their best to avoid being blown to bits.

"Erina, what the hell are you doing?!" Sasuke angrily questioned.

"Running a diagnostic check on the castle's defenses," She answered truthfully. "As well as inspiring all of you. I believe in you, Paladins! Let fear be your guide and form Voltron!"

As the lasers continued to fire down on each of the lions, Tony finally decided that enough was enough and attempted to race back towards the castle. Unfortunately for him, just as he was about to get there, the castle's particle barrier suddenly activated. This caused crash into it, sending the Blue Lion falling backwards. By the time he finally managed to get it back to its feet, Tony found himself being solely targeted by the lasers.

"Oh c'mon!" He yelled. "Can't you show us some mercy?! We're still new at this!"

"Do you think Zarkon is going to show you mercy?" Erina asked the Blue Paladin. "He's probably out there right now, planning to destroy us all!"

After she made her point, the princess cut off communications and went to work. This left the Paladins all alone as they ran all over Arus, trying to avoid the lasers. While this was going on, Marcus was busy trying to come up with an idea to get his team out of this situation. Unfortunately, due to how frantic things were, he wasn't able to come up with anything. This led to him being bombarded by barrage of laser fire.

"Great…This is turning out well…"

* * *

Later on in the day, Erina and Dardarian were busy walking down one of the castle's many hallways as they discussed the current state of the Castle of Lions. From what they were able to determine, the combined damage they sustained from the battle against Sendak as well as they natural wear of being in stasis for so long were causing more problems than they initially thought. Because of that, Dardarian informed the princess that it would still take them quite a bit before they could finally leave the planet.

Upon first hearing this, Erina was a bit upset by this news. With every day that passes, the Galra's strangle hold on the universe gets tighter and tighter. If they wanted to stop them they needed to get off Arus as soon as possible and bring the fight to them. To that end, the princess ordered Dardarian to double his efforts when it came to the castle's repairs. Before that however, the two of them decided to check up on the Paladins and see they were finally able to form Voltron.

When the two of them made their way into the break room, they were surprised to see that 4 of the Paladins were already inside. Sasuke, Tony, Felecia, and Kevin were all lying around the room, obviously exhausted from the training that they were forced to endure. As she looked at all of them, a large smile soon appeared on Erina's face as the Paladins being here could only mean one thing.

"You did it!" She said to them. "You were able to form Voltron!"

"…No." Sasuke answered.

Erina's smile quickly disappeared upon hearing the Red Paladin rebuff her previous assumption. She then turned to face Sasuke as he was busy lying on a couch, staring at the ceiling with a blank expression on his face. After about a minute, he sat up and turned his head towards the princess.

"We didn't form Voltron. The particle barrier suddenly deactivated and we flew back in."

"…What?" Erina questioned.

Sasuke's revelation didn't make sense to Erina upon first hearing it. She was present when she first activated the particle barrier so she would have known if it was turned off. After a bit of thinking however, the princess suddenly realized something and soon turned to Dardarian. When he saw her stare at him with angry look on her face, the vizier what went wrong and immediately explained to the princess what really happened.

"My deepest apologies, princess." He started off. "But I had to turn off the castle's defenses in order to test the fire suppressors."

As Dardarian attempted to wave this off as a simple mistake, Erina continued to scowl at him. The whole point of keeping the particle barrier up was to force the Paladins to work together in order to form Voltron. If they can't make it inside on their own then everything was for nothing. She was about to tear into him for his blunder, but stopped when she noticed that someone else had entered the room.

The individual was none other than Marcus, who was busy using a towel to wipe off the sweat that was on his face. While the remaining Paladins were taking a break, he was still outside practicing with the Black Lion. When he finally came back inside the castle, Marcus was hoping to see the rest of his team ready to continue their training. Unfortunately, he quickly realized that wasn't the case at all.

"What are you doing?" He asked them. "Break time is over, guys. It's time to get back to training."

"We've been training." Kevin pointed out. "When are we going back to Earth?"

"They're won't be an Earth to go back to if we don't defeat Zarkon, Kevin. That's why we need to get back to training so that we can learn how to form Voltron."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Tony questioned. "We don't even know how we formed Voltron the first time."

While the Paladins discussed their current struggles, Dardarian took a moment to look at all of them as he recalled something from his past. During his younger days, back when the original Paladins of Voltron were first formed, he noticed how that team had a strong sense of unity between them. It was because that unity that the original Paladins were able to overcome any crisis they came up against, even when odds were completely against them.

Dardarian knew that one of the keys to forming Voltron was unity, but in comparison to the Paladins of old, this new batch had a lot of problems. That wasn't good and so the vizier decided change that by helping these new Paladins improve their teamwork.

"I think I have an idea," He said. "Come with me everyone."

"…Where are we going?" Felecia asked.

"We're heading to the Training Deck. We're going to have to go back to the basics if you want any chance of learning how to form Voltron."

With that said, Dardarian exited the lounge, prompting all of the Paladins to follow after him. After a while, the vizier led them to a room with a large open space. Once he saw that all of them were inside, Dardarian made his way to the upper deck and looked down at the Paladins from a window. He then started talking to them through a loudspeaker.

"_In order to form Voltron, you 5 must become a true team of Paladins." _He said to them. _"During the last attack your survival instincts forced you to work as a team…but that will only get you so far. You're going to have to learn how to be a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and beating Zarkon the next time."_

"…So that's why we're here." Sasuke replied. "To learn how to act as a team?"

"_Precisely…Now all of you form a circle facing outward!"_

The Paladins were a bit unsure about all of this, but since they didn't have better ideas they decided to go along with it. As a result, all 5 of them formed a circle and proceeded to turn their backs on one another. Once they were in positioned, the Paladins watched as the shields that came with their armor automatically activated. Then, before they had time to react, the walls opened up around them and set free several floating orbs.

"_The Paladin code dictates that you must put your teammate's safety above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack. It's up to each of you to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team."_

As the drones started circling around the Paladins, the 5 of them were bracing themselves for what was about to come. Some of them were nervous while others were excited. In the end, none of them were truly ready, but they had to go for it regardless. Because of that, Marcus said the only thing that he could in this situation.

"Get ready!"

Once that was said, the drones started their attack, randomly firing at the Paladins. In the beginning, the laser fire was very easy to predict and they had no problem deflecting them. However, that soon changed once Dardarian switched the settings to Level 2. In this level, not only were the drones firing at a much faster rate, but they were also starting to change targets. This forced the Paladins to truly focus on protecting their teammates while also trying to protect themselves as well.

After about 2 minutes the first casualty took place. Kevin, to avoid being blasted by one of the drones, nervously ducked out of the way of an oncoming blast. However, this caused that same blast to hit Felecia in the back. Once she was hit, the floor underneath her suddenly opened up and she fell through it. The floor then closed back up, leaving her trapped.

"Felec-"

Before Kevin could even have a chance to finish calling out to her, two drones immediately fired upon him from opposite directions. With Felecia gone and unable to watch his back, Kevin was hit by both blasts. Then, just like with her, the floor underneath him opened up as well and he fell through it too.

"_Protect your teammate!" _Dardarian yelled. _"If you don't they'll be no one there to protect you!"_

With 2 members of their team now eliminated, the remaining Paladins were now in a desperate situation. In addition, things were about to become even more challenging as Dardarian changed the setting to Level 3. This not only caused the drones to fire even faster, but also caused them to fly around the Paladins even faster. In fact, they were moving so fast that they were unable to keep track of them at all.

"Tony, Sasuke…form up now!" Marcus ordered. "It's the only way to protect ourselves!"

Without question, the Red and Blue Paladins immediately obeyed their leader's order and formed up together with him. In this position, they no longer had to worry about any gaps in their defense. However, it also meant that they had to put an even greater emphasis on protecting each other as they didn't have much room to maneuver.

"You keeping up, Sasuke?!" Tony arrogantly asked.

"Just focus on keeping me safe, dumbass!" Sasuke angrily replied.

"Oh please, I own this drill. You're the one who needs to"

While Tony was busy bragging, the drones suddenly changed tactics and all started firing upon the Paladins from below. Sasuke and Marcus quickly took notice of this and ducked down to better block their attacks. However, Tony was a little late on the update. When he finally did notice, the Blue Paladin quickly jumped up to avoid getting hit. This caused those laser blasts to hit his teammates, resulting in them falling through the floor as well.

Now with 4 of the Paladins gone, this left Tony as the last man standing. He bragged about his skills earlier so Dardarian decided to see if he cut put his money where his mouth is. To that end, the vizier raised the challenge to Level 4. Now all the drones fired up Tony at the same, but from multiple angles and directions. With no way to protect himself, the Blue Paladin was struck all at once, eliminating him and sending him fall through the floor as well.

After about 20 seconds of falling, Tony found himself in another section of the castle, alongside the rest of the Paladins. The room that they were in strongly resembled the same one that they were just in, causing the Blue Paladin to wonder if they just went around in a circle. Before he could think about it any further however, Tony found himself on the receiving end of a firm punch from Sasuke, which knocked him to the ground.

"Ow…What the hell?!" He angrily questioned as he held his face.

"That's my line!" Sasuke replied. "What's the big idea letting us get hit like that?"

As the Red and Blue Paladins were about to come to blows, Marcus stepped in and tried to separate the two of them. The Black Paladin had the awareness to know that fighting like this wasn't going to solve anything. However, before he could even mediate the situation, Marcus noticed that another argument was about to break out between Felecia and Kevin.

"What were you thinking?!" Felecia furiously asked Kevin. "Are you that much of baby that you would allow your teammate to get hit just to save your own skin?!"

"Well…" Kevin slowly replied. "How would you feel if you were the one being blasted?"

"I was being blasted, stupid!"

With two fights going on at once, Marcus had his hands full trying to quell this situation. Princess Erina named him the leader because she knew had the qualities that allowed those who followed him to do so without question. Unfortunately, based on what's happening right now, it seemed like Erina was wrong in her assessment of him. Eventually, Marcus was about to snap at his team and get them to stop fighting, but stopped when he saw something enter the room.

When the other Paladins took notice as well, all 5 of them saw a robot with white and yellow plating making its way towards them. The robot was roughly the size of average human male and was carrying a long Bo staff in its right hand, similar to the one Felecia can make with her Bayard. As he watched the robot continue making its way towards him and his team, Marcus wondered what was going on here.

"…What is that thing?"

"_That thing is the Gladiator." _Dardarian answered over the loudspeaker. _"In order to defeat it, 5 Paladins must fight as one."_

Just as Dardarian finished making that statement, the Gladiator immediately began twirling its Bo staff around with great skill. Once it finished, it then started charging towards the Paladins, making its way over to Kevin first. Frightened by the mere sight of it, the Yellow Paladin immediately tried to back away, but was too slow. The Gladiator knocked him down by swiping at his feet before delivering a powerful blow to his chest, giving Kevin a slight shock.

Once it determined that Kevin was no longer a threat, the Gladiator began making its way towards the remaining Paladins. In order to counter them, Felecia, Sasuke, and Tony each summoned their respective Bayards and transformed them into their weapon forms. They then charged at the robot, but the Gladiator was ready for them.

Felecia made the first move, hoping to swipe at the robot's feet in the same manner it did to Kevin. However, the Gladiator easily intercepted her attack and countered by giving her a blow to the side of her head. Then, while she was off balance, the Gladiator grabbed her by her forearm and tossed Felecia at Sasuke, knocking them both down.

When Tony saw this, the Blue Paladin realized that a frontal assault was ill advised. Because of that, he took a few steps back before firing off a few rounds from his blaster. Unfortunately, the Gladiator was able to use its staff to easily deflect each of the blasts. It then rushed towards Tony, who frantically kept firing at the robot in order to get it to stop. Sadly, this failed to do anything as the Gladiator simply jumped over him before kicking him down from behind.

This left Marcus as the only remaining Paladin standing. Although he was a bit apprehensive about going up against such a powerful opponent, Marcus managed to keep his cool. He then instinctively activated his robotic arm, causing it to glow with a bright purple color. The Black Paladin then clashed with the Gladiator and, as he watched from the upper deck, Dardarian was quite impressed that Marcus was able to hold his own against it.

Thanks to his years of training at the Galaxy Garrison, as well as his ability to keep calm under pressure, Marcus was able to successfully parry all of the Gladiator's move while also managing to get in some attacks of his own. When the other Paladins saw this, all of them were amazed by Marcus's skills. It almost looked like he might even manage to beat it. However, as the battle between the two progressed, something unexpected happened.

As he watched the Gladiator charge at him one more time, Marcus's mind suddenly flashed back to when he was a captive of the Galra Empire. He remembered the trauma he felt during his time there, in particular how the Sentry drones chased after them. These memories caused him to break into a cold sweat as he froze up, leaving him vulnerable as the Gladiator attempted to strike at him from above.

"Marcus, look out!"

Just as the Gladiator's attack was about to hit its mark, Sasuke quickly stepped in and blocked the attack with his sword. He then attempted to counter with a powerful sword swipe, but the Gladiator easily jumped out of the way.

"Marcus…!" Sasuke said as he looked back at him. "Marcus, are you alright?!"

Marcus didn't respond to Sasuke's words. His mind was still out of it and he wasn't able to comprehend anything that was going on around him. When Sasuke noticed the pained blank look on Marcus's face, he immediately realized that something was wrong. Unfortunately, before he could even do anything about this, the Red Paladin was suddenly knocked off his feet by the Gladiator. Then, before he even hit the ground, the Gladiator struck him in the gut, knocking both the Red and Black Paladins down in the process.

Once all the Paladins were down and unable to move, the Gladiator gave them a slight bow before leaving the room triumphant. When Dardarian saw this from the upper deck, all he could down was shake his head in disappointment. He then turned around and saw that Erina was in the room with him. She too looked down at the fallen Paladins and all she could do was let out a small sigh.

"This is going to be more difficult than I thought…"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_The Paladins continue their training in order to improve their teamwork, but as things go on it's clear that one of them has their mind of other things. What's more important than forming Voltron and fighting the Galra Empire?_

_Speaking of the Galra, Zarkon is adamant about obtaining the Lions of Voltron and forever securing his place as the supreme ruler of the universe. His top advisor, Witch Haggar, has developed means to achieve this goal. Just what is Haggar's plan and how does it relate to the former Galra Champion…Marcus Robinson?_

_Next Time, Chapter 8: Priorities_


	8. Chapter 8

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 8**: _Priorities_

* * *

"Ahhh! You're doing this on purpose!"

"_No I'm not! You're just not listening!"_

No one ever said that coming together as team would ever be easy. In fact, the process of doing so is often very long and difficult. Not only do you have to get in sync with the people that you're working with, but more importantly you have to develop a strong sense of trust between them as well. This can be very challenging as trusting someone is a lot easier said than done. However, with everything that's at stake, trust is the one thing that new Paladins of Voltron need to develop as soon as possible.

It's been roughly 3 days since Paladins managed to form Voltron and use the legendary defender to defeat Sendak. Unfortunately, ever since that battle, they haven't been able to replicate that same success. No matter how hard they try to do so, they can't seem to bring the lions together and reform Voltron. This was extremely problematic as without it, there was no way the Paladins could ever hope to defeat Zarkon and bring peace to the universe.

In order to change that, Princess Erina's loyal, as well as eccentric, vizier Dardarian has been working around the clock with the Paladins in order to improve their trust and teamwork in order for them to be able to form Voltron. He has had them do a variety of exercises, ranging from battles in the training deck to flight formations in their lions. These exercises were very difficult, especially since the Paladins were still inexperience with everything that's going on. Even so, they had to choice to push through it.

In the days that followed, Dardarian noticed that the Paladins were making significant individual progress. Not only were their combat skills improving, but they were also getting the hang of flying their lions. Even so, their teamwork still left something to be desired. Because of that, the vizier decided to try something different when it came to their training.

Right now, while back in the training deck, Tony was busy standing all by himself while the others were looking down from the upper deck. In front of the main window was Sasuke, who was busy staring at Tony with great interest. The Red Paladin watched as the Blue Paladin took 4 steps forward before suddenly turning right. However, when he did that, Tony bumped into something invisible and received an electric shock for his trouble.

"Damn it!" Tony yelled as he angrily took off and threw his helmet. "You are doing this on purpose!"

"_And you're not listening to me!"_ Sasuke fiercely replied over the loudspeaker. _"I told you 5 steps forwards, not 4!"_

As the two Paladins started arguing with each other again, the remaining 3 and Dardarian were all shaking their heads in disapproval. The training exercise that Tony was going through was walking through an invisible maze that was placed within the training deck. Since he couldn't see what was in front of him, it was Sasuke's job to direct his teammate as the control console in the upper deck enable him to see all the twists and turns in the maze. The purpose of this exercise was to build trust between them, but that proving to be rather difficult.

Due to poor communication on both of their parts, Tony kept on hitting the walls of the maze, getting shocked as a result. This angered Tony greatly and more he got angry, the more Sasuke became irritated with the Blue Paladin's refusal to fully listen to him. As he watched the two of them argue with one another again, Dardarian started to question whether or not pairing the two of them up was a good idea.

Eventually, as they continued to argue, Marcus decided enough was enough and forcibly ended the training program. The Black Paladin then let out a noticeable sigh as he began pinching the middle of his face. Things were not going well and no real progress was being made. The only saving grace is that the Castle of Lions is still not ready to fly yet, meaning that they had more time to training. Still, with everything that's going on, that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"Dardarian…" He said as he looked over towards him. "Do you have any other ideas we can work with? I don't think this is going to cut it."

"Well…" Dardarian replied as he took a moment to think. "I think I may have one that we can try."

Making his way over towards one of the walls, Dardarian pressed down on a switch and watched as a hidden drawer suddenly opened up in front of him. He then proceeded to pull out 5 headsets, presenting Sasuke, Kevin, and Felecia with one before handing Marcus 2, one for himself and the other for Tony.

"Put these on and make your way back to the training deck. I'll explain your next exercise once you're there."

Marcus took a moment to examine the device that Dardarian handed to him, wondering how it could help him and his team improve on their teamwork. However, after failing in their previous attempts, the Black Paladin figured trying something new might produce some better results. To that end, he led the others back down to the training deck. Once they were there, Marcus handed Tony that extra headset before all the Paladins proceeded to place them on their heads.

"_Alright then…" _Dardarian said as he spoke over the loudspeaker. _"Now all of you sit down in a circle, facing each other."_

The Paladins complied too Dardarian instructions and sat down on the floor in the most comfortable position that they could manage. Once they did so, Dardarian proceeded to explain the purpose of this particular exercise.

"_Now…the most important part of Paladin training is too able to meld your minds and focus on one thing…Voltron. Everything else has to fade away. The neural-interfaces you're wearing will enable you to see into the other's mind. This way they'll be no secrets and you'll know everything about your teammates. This exercise will be crucial every time you form Voltron. Now close your eyes…and think about something that's important to you."_

Although somewhat hesitant at first, the Paladins all went along with Dardarian and one by one closed each of their eyes. They then started to think about something that was dear to them. For Marcus, it was the Galaxy Garrison while for Sasuke it was his home back on Earth. Both Tony and Kevin were thinking about their families while the only thing on Felecia's mind was Amrita.

Thanks to the neural-interfaces that they were wearing, not only were the Paladins able to see what the others were thinking within their own minds, but a holographic projection of that image appeared in front of them as well. Once Dardarian saw this from the upper deck, the vizier went along with the next step.

"_Good. Now, while keeping your minds open with one another, clear out everything and focus on one thing…forming Voltron."_

As Dardarian continued to look on, he watched as Marcus, Sasuke, Tony, and Kevin were all able to turn the images of their most important thoughts into their respective lions. He then watched as the lions slowly made their way towards each other and began the process of coming together and building Voltron. The only one who was having trouble was Felecia, as she struggled to take her mind off of Amrita. Thanks to their shared mind link, Sasuke quickly took notice of this and became a bit upset.

"Felecia…Stop thinking about your girlfriend!" He told her.

"I wasn't!" Felecia angrily replied. "Why don't you mind your own business and focus on your own lion?!"

"_Both of you stop fighting!" _Dardarian interjected. _"Clear your minds and form Voltron!"_

Despite the fact that they were still a bit upset with each other, both Sasuke and Felecia stopped their bickering and once again cleared their minds. This time around, Felecia was able to summon a holographic image of the Green Lion and slowly brought it together with the others. Once all 5 lions were in position, they once again began to build Voltron. This time, things seemed to be going well and it looked like the Paladins were going to be able to complete this exercise. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case.

Just as the Green Lion was about to be put into place and become the left arm of Voltron, Felecia lost her focus and started thinking about Amrita again. This caused the image of the Green Lion to suddenly transform into a picture of her. When the other Paladins saw this, each of them became upset with this failure, especially Sasuke.

"Felecia…!"

"SHUT UP!"

Tired of this intrusive exercise, Felecia angrily removed her headset and threw it on the ground in anger. She then firmly placed her hands on the sides of her head, trying her best to keep her already volatile emotions under control. When Marcus saw this, he immediately decided that they've been working hard enough already and that they should take a little break, something the Dardarian agreed with as he looked on from below.

As the vizier came down with a tray of energy drinks, he went to hand each Paladin one of their own. The only one who didn't take one was Felecia, who coldly brushed Dardarian aside. Upon seeing that, Marcus realized that she was having more trouble than he initially thought and decided to help her.

"Hey Felecia…" He said as he walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder. "You know you can talk to us if something's bothering you. I mean…we're a team, right?"

"…I'm fine, Marcus." She lied. "I just need to be alone right now."

Once she said that, Felecia quickly made her way out of the room. Knowing that she was lying about how she was really feeling, Marcus knew that he couldn't leave her alone while she's like this and thus followed after her. Just as the two of them left, Erina entered the training deck with all 4 of her pet Space Mice happily placed on her shoulders.

Just one look at all of them was all the princess needed to know that another training exercise had ended in failure. Although she tried her best to keep her cool about it, it was obvious to everyone else that Erina was becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress. When he saw this, Dardarian decided to take her mind off of it by starting the conversation off with something else.

"So Princess…." He slowly started off. "How's the latest diagnostic on the castle?"

"…Not good." Erina answered. "Every time I solve one problem, another one surfaces. I'm reluctant to say this, but I'm starting to believe that we can't repair the castle with the parts that we have. They're simple too worn out for practical use."

After saying that, Erina gently put her head down for a moment as she pondered what she was going to do about all of this. She knew that if her father was here, things would be going a lot smoother and that they would probably on the verge of defeating Zarkon. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and it caused Erina if she was truly capable to doing all of this.

Upon noticing the disheartened look on her face, Dardarian tried to find somewhat to remedy this situation and brighten the princess's spirits. To that end, he summoned a holographic chart and used to examine the areas of the castle that needed the most work. Like Erina said, there were several problems and with the parts they had, those problems couldn't be fixed. However, it was at that moment that a suddenly realization just hit Dardarian. If they couldn't use their parts to fix the castle, they could instead use someone else's.

With that thought firmly in place, Dardarian started typing on the holographic chart, causing a display screen to appear next to him. As Erina and the remaining Paladins watched him work, they all noticed that the screen was showing the landscape of planet Arus. After a bit, the screen focused in on something that was lying on the ground. Upon a closer examination, it was revealed that thing Dardarian was searching for was the remains of Sendak's Galra ship.

"Dardarian…" Erina said as she looked over towards him. "What are you doing?"

"Getting the parts we need, Princess." He answered with a small smirk.

While this was going on, Marcus finally caught with Felecia. She was in cryo-chamber, staring at all the prisoners that they've rescued from Sendak as they slept in their pods. According to what she was told, they should be released any moment now and Felecia wanted to be the first person to greet them when they awaken.

When he saw this, Marcus knew right away what Felecia's true intentions were. Although a part of her honestly concerned for their well-being, Felecia was more concerned about whether they had any information on Amrita's current whereabouts. In all honesty, Marcus was wondering about that himself, especially since the prisoners may also known whereabouts of Dr. Mitchell, third member who was on the Kerberos mission with him and Amrita.

"You just couldn't wait, huh?" He said as he entered the room.

"…No." Felecia answered, as she turned to face Marcus for a moment. "These people have to know something about Amrita. They have too."

"I hope so…"

As Felecia and Marcus continued to examine each of the sleeping prisoners, the former took a moment to examine the latter. She then remembered back during their mission on Sendak's ship that they knew Marcus. It was because they knew him that gave Felecia the belief that they must know Amrita as well.

"I remembered they called you Champion." Felecia continued. "What does that even mean?"

"Who knows…?" Marcus took a moment to examine the prisoners as they slept. "My memories of that time are still fragmented. But…the way they looked at me when we freed them. A part of me doesn't even want to know."

Soon, after about a few more minutes of waiting, Marcus and Felecia both started to hear noises coming from the cryo-pods. When they looked at them, the two Paladins watched as they slowly opened up and released the prisoners. Upon seeing this, Felecia's eyes began to light up in anticipation.

"...This is it."

* * *

For over 10,000 years, the Galra Empire has held most of the known in a vicious choke hold. Their rule has been going on for so long that practically no one even attempts to resist them any longer. For those individuals, they have become a way of life, one that they must accept lest they be killed. It's a tragic turn of events, but with the current state of things, there was simply nothing that could be done about it.

This was all thanks to the Galra's ruthless emperor, Zarkon. From atop of his vile warship, the Doombringer, the Galra King has spent these last 10,000 years conquering every world that he set his evil sights on. He goal was simple, to make everything in the universe his. With the powerful army that's ever been assembled, there was practically nothing that could keep him from this desire. Even so, it wasn't enough for Zarkon. He needed more and in order to become truly invincible, he needed Voltron.

In the days following Sendak's defeat on Arus, Zarkon has been working closely with his high council in order figure out a way to retrieve the powerful super robot. Even though Zarkon truly believed that there was nothing in this universe that could match his power, even he knew that Voltron's strength was not to be underestimated. The fact that the Paladins defeated Sendak, who was considered to be Zarkon's strongest commander, was proof of that. Because of that, Zarkon knew that he would need to approach this very carefully if wanted to obtain what he believed to be rightfully his.

One day, while silently pondering this very situation, Zarkon was approached by one of his commanders, named Nab. As he watched Nab kneel before him, Zarkon noticed that he had a few scars covering both his face and his armor. It was obvious that he just came back from kind of conflict. Even so, Zarkon didn't seem to care about that. All he wanted to know was one thing.

"You have returned early…Have you completed your mission?"

"Forgive me sire…" Nab apologized. "But we were forced to retreat. The moons around the planet were becoming increasingly unstable. If I stayed any longer I would've lost half my men."

"…Perhaps. But the half that survived would've been stronger for it."

Surprised by what he just heard, Nab lifted head and faced Zarkon with a confused expression on his face. As he stared at the emperor's glowing purple eyes, Nab was filled with a sense of dread so terrifying it was almost like Zarkon had his heart in his hand. He then listened as the emperor said the following.

"Weakness is an infection. Better to cut it off…before it can spread."

With that said, two robot Sentries appeared from behind Nab and took a hold of him. There was no screaming or signs of resistance. Nab knew that his life had effectively come to an end. All the former commander could do was look on silently as he was taken away, never to be seen again.

Shortly after Nab was taken away, a dark shadow began to materialize right beside Zarkon. As it began to take shape, the shadow soon transform into the emperor's top advisor, Witch Haggar. With her dark purple skin and piercing yellow eyes, Haggar was one of the few people within the Galra Empire that Zarkon actually trusted. Because of that, the two of them wasted no time talking about matters of the upmost importance.

"What have you and your Druids come up with to capture Voltron?" Zarkon questioned.

"…I have been working on perfecting something." Haggar revealed. "Something that will strike fear into the hearts of any that stands against it. Voltron may have surprised Sendak, but will not be able to stop my creation."

"Then get to work. I want Voltron immediately."

Following this brief conversation, Haggar gently nodded her head in compliance and soon disappeared just as quickly as she appeared. Once she was gone, Zarkon got up from his throne and slowly made his way towards a nearby window. He then stared out into the endless void of space, silently thinking about the power that will soon be within his grasp.

Meanwhile, Haggar reappear in another section of the ship and soon started walking down a long hallway. Accompanying her were two hooded figures known simply as Druids. Like Haggar they were extremely skilled in the use of ancient dark magic and their loyalty to her was surpassed by Zarkon himself. The Druids would gladly give their lives for Haggar, but the witch simply saw them as a means to an end.

Eventually, after several minutes of walking around, Haggar and her Druids made their way towards a large door. After forcing the guards to let her in, Haggar watched as the door opened and revealed a large a vicious alien chained up against the wall. It was a terrifying creature, but the witch not even a hint of fear for it. Instead, she calmly made her way towards it as she started talking.

"I think I have the opportunity you've been waiting for." She said. "How would you like to get your revenge against the Champion?"

The creature didn't answer Haggar right away as it simply continued to look at her. Soon though, it began to let out a rather sadistic smile. The thought of finally getting his hands around the Champion's neck was something that's been on its mind ever since he was placed within this tiny prison. It would do anything to get its revenge, even if it meant surrendering itself fully to a witch as vile as Haggar. Because of that, the creature continued to smile as it nodded at her.

Upon seeing this, Haggar slowly raised her arm in the air, prompting the Druids to grab a hold of the creature and take it to another section of the ship. Once they arrived in that particular section, the Druids then went on to encase the creature completely within an iron box. Haggar then reappeared before them and watched as the Druids connected several wires to the box. As soon as they finished, the Druids backed away as their master began chanting quietly to herself.

As Haggar chanted, Zarkon was busy looking on at this scene from one of the upper decks. The Galra Emperor wanted to see firsthand what his faithful witch had up her vile sleeve. After about another minute of waiting, Zarkon watched as Haggar raised both of her hands in front of her, causing a massive wave of dark energy to envelop the area.

The energy quickly overwhelmed the creature, causing it to scream out in utter agony. It also caused its body to glow a dark purple color. This color was the result of the creature's Quintessence, or life force, being sucked out of its body. As the extraction continued, the creature continued to roar in agony until it finally died. Once it breathed its last breath, all of its Quintessence flowed through the wires that was connected to box that it was in and was transferred to an unknown source.

The source that the Quintessence was making its way towards was an extremely large robot that was roughly the same size as Voltron. As Haggar, the Druids, and more importantly Zarkon all looked on, the energy completely filled the robot, causing it to activate. It then unleashed an ear deafening roar, similar to one that the creature gave out. When it did, Haggar let out a small, yet fiendish smile.

"It is ready."

* * *

Meanwhile, back on Arus, Marcus and Felecia were busy tending to the prisoners as they adjusted to their new surroundings. Having been in captivity for so long, it was rather difficult for them to adjust to more peaceful conditions. Even so, the two Paladins did their best for them by giving them each a blanket and something warm to drink.

As they continued to help them, Felecia was contemplating the best way to ask them about Amrita. She didn't want to say anything that would make them feel uncomfortable, but at the same time she really wanted the information that she desired. Eventually, she decided to ask and see how they would respond.

"So…how long have you been held captive by Zarkon?" She asked.

"Some for years, decades even." One of the prisoners answered. "It's hard to tell. Time becomes a blur."

"Then you must've been there when my…friend arrived. Her name was Amrita. She looked very similar to me."

The alien prisoner took a moment to examine Felecia's facial feature before attempting to recall anyone else who had a similar appearance. After roughly a minute, he gave the Green Paladin an answer.

"I never knew her name, but I certainly remember the other 2 Earthlings that arrived with Champion."

As the alien turned his head and stared at Marcus, the Black Paladin stared back at him after hearing say the word Champion. This was the second time he's been called that by them and Marcus wanted to know why that is.

"Why…do you keep calling me, Champion?" He asked.

"You really don't remember?" The alien questioned, surprised by what he just learned. "That's unbelievable. You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring. You defeated a legendary Galra gladiator known as Myzax. That was the day you earned the name Champion. I was there…along with the other young Earthling."

Closing his eyes for a moment, the alien recalled the day that he was talking about. Just thinking about those terrible times were very painful as it brought back a lot of bad memories. Even so, he persisted as he wanted to pay back the ones who saved his life.

"We were all prisoners, forced to fight for the amusement of Zarkon. On that day we were set to fight Myzax, a vile creature many thought could never be defeated. Death awaited us all. This…Amrita was the first set to fight, but fate had other plans."

As he slowly reopened his eyes, the alien looked back at Marcus with a solemn look on his face. When he saw that look, the Black Paladin was starting to fear the worse and that something had happened to Amrita during that match. However, Marcus soon learned that what he was thinking was not what actually happened.

"You were so thirsty for blood…that you injured your fellow Earthling."

Once this revelation was revealed, Felecia's eyes began to widen from utter shock. She then looked towards an equally surprised Marcus for a moment before gradually giving him a rather fierce some glare. She then went on to grab him by his armor.

"You attacked, Amrita?! Why?!"

As Felecia began angrily questioning him, Marcus was trying his best to wrap his head around what he just learned. The mere thought of him harming Amrita, who was not only his fellow crewmate, but also a good friend, seemed preposterous. He knew that there was absolutely no way that he was do that, prompting him to shake his head in denial.

"No…You're wrong." He said softly. "There's got to be some kind of mistake. I would never hurt my friends."

"But it's true…" The alien confirmed. "I was there. We all were."

Turning his attention towards the other prisoners, the alien watched as all of them nodded their heads in agreement. When they saw that, Felecia became even more upset with Marcus as it was becoming more and more evident that he did attack Amrita when the two of them were imprisoned. However, Marcus still remained in denial as he couldn't accept what he was hearing.

"No…This can't be true. There has be another reason I-"

"_Marcus. Felecia. Please meet us outside the castle immediately."_

The voice that just spoke over the intercom just now belonged to none other than, Dardarian. From his tone, it was clear that something important was going on and that he needed everyone to join him outside. Despite that though, Felecia was extremely reluctant to comply with the vizier's request. After what she just learned, the Green Paladin had every intention of staying and trying to determine what exactly happened to Amrita. But, after Dardarian called out to her for a second time, Felecia reluctantly complied and soon made her way out of the room.

As Marcus followed close behind, the Black Paladin silently stared at his teammate and could tell right away how upset she was. In addition to that, he could also tell that her anger and frustration was mostly being directed at him. Even so, Marcus kept his cool and stayed quiet. He didn't want to say anything that would upset Felecia any more than she already is. In addition, he wanted to be respectful to her feelings as, even if he continued to deny that he harmed Amrita maliciously, the fact remained that the evidence was stacked against him.

Once the two of them were outside, the joined up with Dardarian, Erina, and the rest of the Paladins. After seeing that everyone was present and accounted for, Dardarian lead the group as the trekked across Arus. Tony was the first to complain about this as he believed that it would be much easier if they just flew on their Lions. However, Dardarian shot that idea down as he believed that using the Lions would make what they're doing too easy. So, after about an hour of walking around, the group finally arrived at their destination.

To the surprise of the Paladins, Dardarian brought them to the broken remains of Sendak's Galra cruiser. Because they've been so focus on their training for the last couple of days, they all forgot that the ship was still on the planet. Now that they were able to get a good look at it, without it trying to kill them, the Paladins were all amazed by the sheer scope of the ship.

"Impressive…But why are we here?" Marcus asked.

"Well, you see…I've determined that we can't fix the castle with the parts we currently have." Dardarian answered. "Most the parts we need are either too worn out or were damaged from the battle against Sendak. At this rate, the castle will never be repaired and we won't be able to get off this planet. Fortunately…I've managed to find an alternative."

"Alternative…?" Felecia questioned. Her eyes then widen as she came to a realization. "Wait…do you mean?"

"Precisely!" Dardarian gave out a confident smile as he gleefully pointed towards the ship. "If we can't our own parts to repair the castle, then we'll just use parts from this Galra ship. From what I was able to determine, most the parts we need are compatible with what's here on the ship. All we need to do is find them and bring them back with us."

"In addition, this could be a good team building exercise for all of you." Erina followed up. "I've learned that sometimes the most mundane tasks can be the most helpful when it comes to working together. I want all of you to pair up and search the ship for the parts we need. I've downloaded a list into the personalized computers that's installed in your armor."

Upon hearing the princess say that, Tony found himself pressing a button that was on the left wrist of his Paladin armor. When he did that, he watched as a small display screen appeared right in front of him, detailing the list of parts that they needed. This amazed the Blue Paladin greatly and it even caused him to wonder if he could log into the internet with this computer. However, before he could even attempt to do so, Tony saw that his teammates were leaving without him and quickly gave chase.

Now, with their next task firmly in mind, the Paladins all split up and began searching for the parts they needed. Marcus and Sasuke paired up in order to find some stabilizers. Tony and Kevin left in order to locate the crystal that powers the ship. And finally, Felecia and Dardarian paired up in order to find any other parts that they might need. All the while, Princess Erina was busy observing all of them from a distance.

Originally, Felecia was set to be paired up with Marcus and Sasuke, but the Green Paladin immediately insisted that she didn't want to go with them. Before anyone could ask her why, Marcus interjected and agreed to her request. He knew that Felecia didn't want anything to do with him right now and he wanted to give her some space. Because of that, he asked Dardarian if he could accompany her, to which the vizier was more than happy to oblige.

As everyone went about their assigned tasks, something strange began to occur around the remains of the Galra ship. No one noticed it at first as they were too busy working, but one by one everyone suddenly went missing. Kevin was the first too be taken, which soon followed by Tony. Sasuke and Marcus were grabbed shortly thereafter before finally Dardarian and Erina were taken as well. The only one that remained was Felecia, who continued making her away around the ship.

Just before the Green Paladin found herself being kidnapped as well, Felecia stopped when she came across the bridge of the ship. When she saw highly advanced computer inside, the young woman's eyes suddenly lit up in excitement and she began making her away towards it. Once she made it, Felecia tried to activate the computer and her interaction with the machine caused those who were secretly pursuing her to pull back in fear.

After a few minutes of tinkering, Felecia concluded that she couldn't get the computer to activate on her own. She needed something compatible with Galra technology in order to get it too work. The first thing that came to mind when she pondered this is Marcus, who has an arm that's made from Galra tech. However, given everything that she just learned recently, Felecia didn't want anything to do with him at the moment. Instead, the Green Paladin called upon another individual to help her.

"Hey Rover…" She said as she activated her wrist communicator. "Get over here."

Around 2 minutes after she made her summons, Felecia watched as a tiny Galra Drone began making its way towards her. It was Rover, the drone she reprogrammed when she and Marcus were busy saving the prisoners from Sendak's ship. Because it was the most highly advanced piece of technology that she ever seen, Felecia just couldn't help herself when she brought it back with her to the castle. She wanted to see how it worked and she believed that it might be quite useful to her one day.

Now was that time. So, after hooking it up to the mainframe, Felecia had Rover activate the Galra computer and, much to her excitement, she was successful. Once she was in the system, the young woman began searching for the prisoner logs. If Amrita really was with the group of prisoners that she freed, then she should be recorded within the logs.

"C'mon…Where are you, Amrita?"

Felecia continued to work for a few more minutes until she finally came across some restricted files. Because she couldn't access them on her own, she had Rover break through the firewall. However, security measures were intense and even though Rover was able to bypass them, it was going to take quite some time until it was finally able to do so. However, Amrita wasn't all that concerned as she believed that she had all the time in the world.

Unfortunately, just as she began to think that, the Green Paladin was suddenly proven wrong. Suddenly, her wrist communicator was beginning to activate. Although she tried her best to ignore it, the constant ringing that it was giving off was beginning to annoy her. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore and soon responded to whomever was calling her.

"Guys, I'm busy right now! Could you-"

"_Prisoners…You have been brought her to face judgment for trespassing on our sacred land!"_

Upon hearing an unfamiliar voice speak on the other line, Felecia immediately shut her mouth so that they couldn't hear her. From what she was able to gather, whoever was talking kidnapped her teammates. In addition, he seemed angry as he believed that they had trespassed on his territory. While Felecia didn't believe that was the case, she knew that it was only through her own point of view. In truth, because they were on a planet that she was completely unfamiliar with, Felecia and the others were technically trespassing on it.

As she continued to listen to what was going on, Felecia glanced over to check on Rover's progress and saw that it wasn't even half way done yet. This complicated things as whoever was speaking said something that greatly troubled her.

"_Now, by the will of our all-powerful Lion God, we will now sacrifice you all to our sacred fire!"_

Once she heard that, Felecia's eyes widened greatly. She then glanced back over the computer console and saw that Rover still wasn't finished yet. Time was running out and if she didn't make herself known soon, her friends would be in trouble. This was a trouble situation and as she weighed her options, all the Green Paladin could do was scoff at her rotten luck.

"Great…Just great…"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_What will Felecia do? Will she go and help her team or will she stay behind get the data she needs? Regardless of whatever she chooses, she needs to do it quickly. Haggar's fiendish creation has been sent to Arus and from what she claims…it has the power to defeat Voltron._

_Next Time, Chapter 9: The Showdown on Arus – Part 1_


	9. Chapter 9

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 9**: _The Showdown on Arus – Part 1_

* * *

"You have got to be kidding me…"

Those were the words that collectively went through the Paladins heads as they were currently being held captive. When Marcus, Sasuke, Tony, and Kevin were told that they were going the heroes who will save the universe, all of them expected something a little flashier than this. In fact, if they were going to die, most of them would've preferred that their deaths be a bit more extravagant. However, the situation that they were currently in couldn't be considered extravagant at all.

What started as a mission to gather supplies from Sendak's fallen Galra ship turned into a hostage situation as Marcus, Sasuke, Tony, Kevin, Erina, and Dardarian were all brought before a tiny village. With their mouths gagged and arms tied, the six of them were at the complete mercy of their captors, who accused them of trespassing onto their home. However, it wasn't the fact that they were captured that was bothering them. Instead, it was the appearance of their captors that was doing that.

As they looked on at them, the group saw that their captors were a large group of tiny aliens, who ranged from 1 to 2 feet tall. On their heads were 1 to 2 ribbed, brown horns and they were all wearing rather simple clothing, mostly consisting of a tunic and a shoulder cape. At first look, these people looked rather cute, but then some of them placed bladed weapons by the Paladins throats, showing that looks can be extremely deceiving.

While half the group continued to wonder how they got into this mess, and the other half wondered how they were going to get out of it, they were all soon approached by another tiny alien. This one looked extremely similar to the others, with the only exception that he was much older and was wearing a much fancier cape. The group then watched as several the other aliens bowed before this one, indicating to them that he was their leader.

"My fellow Arusians…" The alien said. "For hundreds of years our people have been able to live in peace and serenity. However…that peace has been shattered as fire has rain down from the heavens and earthquakes have shaken the land. For the last few suns, we were unable to determine the cause of these events...until now. Now, we know that it's these fiendish intruders who were responsible for the destruction that plagues our land."

Upon hearing all of this, the Paladins were able to determine that these aliens, who were now revealed to be natives of this planet, were correct in their assumptions. Their battle against Sendak and their attempts to reform Voltron has caused an extensive amount of damage to planet Arus. However, the Paladins didn't mean any harm by it and attempted to tell this to the Arusians. Unfortunately, the gags that were covering their mouths were making it extremely difficult for them to do so.

While trying to break free from his restraints, Marcus was able to activate the wrist communicator on his armor. Because Felecia was the only one among them who has yet to be captured, the Black Paladin hoped that she would hear what's going on and come to help her. Fortunately, the King of the Arusians seemed to be a rather eccentric individual who liked to hear himself talk somewhat. This bought the group some time, which they hope would allow Felecia to hurry up and get here.

Eventually, as time began to pass by, the group watched as several of the Arusians began gathering together a large amount of wood. Once they had enough, one them lit it on fire, causing a large flame to appear in the middle of their village. The King then turned his attention back towards his prisoners, who were all looking back at him with mixed expressions on their faces.

"Now, in accordance to our ancient traditions and to appease our great Lion God…We will now sacrifice these intruders to our sacred fire!"

Signaling to several of his people, the King watched as several of his finest warriors gathered together and began making their way towards the prisoners. After debating about whom to sacrifice first, they all decided to that Kevin would be the first victim. To that end, they gathered around the Yellow Paladin and proceeded to drag him towards the bonfire.

The others tried their best to stop this, but the several of the Arusians responded to them by placing sharp knives by their throats. It looked like this would be the end for Kevin, but before he could sacrificed, a large stone was suddenly thrown onto the middle of the Arusian village. When everyone turned into the direction of where the stone was thrown, they saw a young woman with light brown skin, wearing green and white armor standing before them. It was Felecia, who had finally arrived on the scene.

"Wait…You have to stop this!" The Green Paladin stated. "We are not your enemies!"

As she slowly made her way towards the village, Felecia made sure to hold both of her hands out in order to show the Arusians that she meant no ill will towards them. She even went out of way to summon her Bayard, only to place it on the ground. The Green Paladin wasn't here to fight, only to save her friends, and she wanted illustrate this to the Arusians. Unfortunately, not all of them were completely sold by this act.

Gathering their weapons, the Arusian warriors gathered around Felecia, all of whom were prepared to attack at a moment's notice. Even so, Felecia didn't respond to them and simply continued to hold her hands out. She then watched as the King began making his way towards her, looking at Felecia with a skeptical expression on his face.

"And what makes you say that?" He questioned. "Prove to us that you are not our enemies."

Upon being asked that question, Felecia started thinking as quickly as she could in order to come up with an acceptable answer. As she did so, the young woman examined her surroundings and soon noticed several stone markings placed all around the village. Each marking had the image of some sort of lion warrior, which must mean the Lion God that the King spoke of earlier. This caused her to suddenly pick up on something, which she decided to use to her advantage.

"Because…if you attack us, you'll anger your Lion God."

The King was immediately surprised by Felecia's words, as were the rest of the Arusians. They wondered how she knew about their Lion God and why he would be angry with them if they continued antagonize their captors. This caused the King to question Felecia further.

"What do you mean? How can you be so sure?"

"That's simple…" Felecia turned towards the others and pointed directly at Erina. "Because she's the Lion God's master."

The Arusians were stunned by the revelation, causing most of warriors to drop their weapons in shock. However, the one who the most surprised was Erina as the princess had no idea what Felecia was even talking about. She then watched as Felecia took the opportunity to make her way over to her. She then began to remove her restraints, placing her head by Erina's ear as she did so.

"I think they're talking about Voltron." She whispered. "Play along and we might live through this."

After the gag covering Felecia's mouth was removed, the princess looked over towards the Green Paladin with a mixed expression on her face. Felecia didn't respond to Erina's concerns however as she needed to continue this facade. All she could do was hope that the princess could do her part and convince the Arusians of her claims.

Eventually, despite having doubts about this, Erina decided to go along with Felecia's plan. To that end, the princess slowly made her to the Arusian King. Once she reached him, she took a moment to take a deep breath before talking to him.

"Yes…I am indeed the Lion God's master." She started off. "His name is Voltron and he would be very upset if we were harmed. However, I know that he would be quite pleased if you freed me and the rest of my friends."

Once Erina finished speaking, she watched as the Arusians all started looking at her like they've seen an actual god. She then looked on as each and every one of them got on their knees and starting bowing towards her. When she saw this, the young princess didn't know what to feel as this sight made her feel honored and uncomfortable at the same time. Regardless, the plan was working as the Arusian were believing her claims.

Taking advantage of the situation, Felecia proceeded to remove the restraints on Marcus and the others. Once all of them were free, they all watched as Erina began moving her hands, signaling to the Arusians that they didn't need continue bowing to her.

"Um…Please rise, my friends. I would prefer that we all stood together as equals."

"But Lion Goddess," The King said, referring to Erina. "We mustn't be so disrespectful. After all…isn't that why you've sent Voltron to attack us?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Picking himself up from off the ground, the Arusian King showed Erina the devastation that's been plaguing all of Arus. In particular, he focused most of his attention on the Galra ship that was near his village. He then went on to tell her what he meant.

"As I previously stated…We have been plagued by a number of disasters as of late. At first, we were unsure about what was causing them. But then we saw Voltron, our Lion God, and we realized it was his doing. Then we saw you and we ignorantly assumed that you were responsible for our God's rampage. But I see that is was us, not you, that have incurred our God's wrath."

"…No." Erina said, shaking her head. "You and your people are not to blame for this, your majesty. If anyone is to blame…it's the Galra."

Closing her eyes for a moment, Erina took a moment to reflect upon everything the Galra have done over the last 10,000 years. Just the thought of it was enough to cause arm to shake in anger. Still, the princess was able to keep in control of her emotions and not let them overwhelm her. She then reopened her eyes and turned back towards the Arusians.

"The Galra are a vile race, who want nothing more than to destroy the universe and everyone in it. They were the ones who attacked your home. But…please know that my friends and I are doing everything within our power to stop them. Together with Voltron, we'll not only return peace back to your home…but to everyone else in the universe as well!"

As soon as Erina finished her speech, she watched as all the Arusians started cheering in unison. She then looked as Dardarian and the Paladins all started clapping at her as well. All them were impressed by her speech and they all honestly believed in her words. This brought a small smile to her face as she was pleased that she was able to inspire people in the same way that her late father was able too.

With this situation finally settled, the Arusian people happily accepted Erina and the Paladins as their friends and welcomed them to their village. While most of them very busy enjoying their hospitality, Felecia was simply looking on with a silent expression on her face. With her allies safe and sound, the young woman had successfully accomplished her mission. Now, with that out of her way, she could go back to what she considered to be truly important and thus left the village. As she did so, Marcus noticed that she was leaving, but simply chose not to pursue.

After making her way through the wreckage of Sendak's ship, the Green Paladin found herself back at the bridge. Before she left to go help the others, Felecia had her robot companion Rover continue scanning the bridge's computer system in the hope of finding any mention of her girlfriend, Amrita. She hoped that in the time that she was gone, something would've came up by now. Unfortunately, as she stared out in the display screen, all those hopes were dashed.

_The Data is Corrupt_

The damage to Sendak's ship had greatly damaged its computer systems. Because of that, Rover wasn't able to access any of the files that Felecia was looking for. This caused her to fall to her knees as the reality of her situation began to set in. Then, as tears began running down her face, the Green Paladin started angrily banging on the computer keyboard.

"Damn it….Damn it, Damn it, Damn it!"

* * *

Meanwhile, as the Paladins continued to their work on Arus, High Priestess Haggar was busy observing the final modifications to her diabolical creation back on the Galra Empire's main flagship, Doombringer. As she looked on from an observatory, Haggar watched as several of her loyal Druids were loading up the creation inside some kind of metal coffin. As soon as it was secured, the Druids used their combined power to infuse it with dark magic.

After about 5 minutes of this, the Druids completed their work and soon vanished from sight. This prompted several of the Empire's robot drones to type on several consoles, punching in coordinates. Once the final key was pressed, everyone watched as two large doors began to open, unveiling the dark vastness of outer space. The coffin was the shot into the dark void, where it quickly made its way towards its destination.

Once Haggar saw this, the witch silently left the observation deck and began making her towards another area of the ship. Upon arriving, she bear witness to Emperor Zarkon, who was allowing himself to be struck by several purple beams of energy. However, instead of being harmed by these beams, Zarkon was instead becoming empowered by them. Once this process finally came to an end, the evil Galra Emperor felt even more powerful than he did before.

"Sire…" Haggar said, calling out to her master. "My beast is currently on its way to Arus."

Zarkon didn't immediately respond to Haggar's announcement as he was still allowing himself to savor the power that he was feeling. Although very few things actually pleased him, this wasn't one of them. As a result, Zarkon didn't actually care about Haggar's creation and instead focused on himself and his increased strength.

"This Quintessence gives me so much power." He said as he flexed his arms. "I can fight the Paladins myself."

"There is no need." Haggar simply replied. "My beast will soon capture the Voltron Lions for you. Then the most powerful weapon in the universe will be ours."

Upon hearing the name Voltron, Zarkon slowly turned around and faced Haggar. Due to how important Voltron was to him and how he's been searching for it for so long, it was not something to be said lightly around the Galra Emperor. Under most circumstances, Zarkon would have killed someone for just simply mentioning. However, Haggar was different as she was one the few people Zarkon trusted. So, instead of doing anything to her, Zarkon simply walked past his High Priestess as he made his back into his throne room.

After sitting down on his throne and spending the next several minutes thinking quietly to himself, Zarkon suddenly received a communication signal. However, what was most surprising about it is that the signal was coming from none other than Arus, the same planet where the Voltron Lions were located. Intrigued by this development, Zarkon responded to the signal and watched as a view screen appeared before him. On the other side of the screen was a familiar individual whose appearance intrigued Zarkon even more.

"…It's you."

* * *

A few days have passed after the Paladins met up with the local Arusian people. During that time, they got back to work with trying to salvage usable parts from Sendak's Galra ship and use them to repair the damaged Castle of Lions. Together with the Arusians, each of the Paladins were able to make progress with their tasks as more and more valuable parts were making themselves known. However, as Princess Erina looked, she noticed that something even more noticeable was taking place, something that was putting a smile on her face.

Although it took some doing, the princess watched as her Paladins were all working together when it came to getting all the parts. This was especially true when it came to the Red and Blue Paladins, Sasuke and Tony. When they first started, the two of them were constantly at odds, with even Tony wanting to make this into a competition in order to see who can gather the most usable parts. However, all that changed just one day ago.

On that particular day, Tony watched as one of the Arusians that was helping them got trapped under some parts and getting crushed. Acting quickly, the Blue Paladin rushed over and tried his best to lift the debris so that the Arusian could escape. Unfortunately, he simply wasn't strong enough and Tony wondered if this would be it for his little helper. However, it at the exact moment that he was thinking that someone unexpected appeared to lend him a hand; Sasuke.

"C'mon…Let me lend you a hand."

Despite portraying himself to be somewhat of a loner, Sasuke was the kind of individual who couldn't stand by and ignore someone who was in trouble. To that end, the Red Paladin made his way to Tony and helped him lift the debris that was crushing the little Arusian. The two of them then put it over towards the side so that it can be salvage for parts later. Following that the two Paladins went on to work together in order to find any more useable parts. Although there was the occasional fight here and there, Sasuke and Tony were able to successfully work together in order to get the job done.

As for Marcus and Kevin, the two of them didn't really have any trouble when it came to their teamwork. Being the two strongest Paladins, the both of them were able to lift with relative ease. Not only that, since the two of them didn't have any problems with one another, Marcus and Kevin were able to help one another when it came to moving stuff around, showing how they trusted one another. All in all, Erina was quite please by what she was seeing and was glad that progress was being made. Still, there was something that wasn't quite right with this scene.

"Hey…Where's Felecia?" She asked herself.

Upon hearing her asked that, Marcus stopped what he was doing and looked around the area. Like Erina, he saw that Felecia wasn't anywhere to be found. This was quite concerning as the Green Paladin has been skipping out on her duties recently and that wasn't good. Although he knew that she was still quite upset with him, Marcus couldn't just stand by anymore. To that end, he decided to put his work on hold for a moment and started looking for his teammate.

For about 10 minutes, Marcus surveyed the area, looking high and low for any sign of Felecia. Having seen her earlier today, he knew that she couldn't have gone far. She had to be still in the general area. To that end, he activated a device on his Paladin armor, which enabled him to locate any of his teammates. When he saw a green blip appear on the small display screen that appeared on his wrist communicator, Marcus saw that Felecia was really close and rushed over toward her location. After a bit, he soon found her inside the remains of the fallen Galra ship.

The Black Paladin watched as Felecia was busy typing on the keyboard that was on the bridge of the ship. However, despite how many buttons she pressed, the display screen kept closing down on her. When that happened, Felecia's anger and frustration kept increasing, causing her to angrily grit her teeth as a result. In time, Marcus decided that he couldn't sit back and watch this anymore and soon revealed himself to the Green Paladin.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Surprised by his sudden appearance, Felecia turned around and saw Marcus looking directly at her. She noticed that he had a concerned look on his face, obviously worried by how upset she was getting. Still, Felecia didn't truly care how Marcus felt given everything she learned about him recently and so she turned around and went back to work. However, this didn't deter Marcus, who simply walked towards her.

"C'mon Felecia…" He said in a calm and reassuring tone of voice. "The rest of the team is out there working and yet you're in here. The least you can do is tell me what that is. How can I help you otherwise?"

Felecia stopped for a moment after hearing Marcus say that to her. She then found herself clinching her fist and gritting her teeth even harder. The Green Paladin then turned around and faced Marcus, who was a bit stunned by how upset she was. Still, he held his ground and listened as Felecia began tearing into him.

"You…Help me?!" She started off. "You have a lot of nerve saying that after what you did to Amrita! She was supposed to be your friend, your crewmate…and yet you go and injure after entering some kind of blood frenzy. After everything you've done Marcus, do you honestly believe that I would want anything to do with you, let alone help you?!"

"…Then don't do it for me." Marcus calmly followed. "Do it for the rest of the team. We're going to need your help if we want to get the parts we need to leave this planet and take the fight to Zarkon and the rest of the Galra Empire."

"I don't give a damn about fighting the Galra Empire…or being a Paladin of Voltron for that matter! The only thing I care about is finding Amrita! That's the only reason I came into space in the first place! You and the others can go save the universe all you want, but leave me out of it! Now…if we're done here can you please leave me alone? I have far more important things to do right now."

Once that was said, Felecia turned around and went back to typing on the keyboard. As he watched her do that, Marcus simply looked at her as he took in everything that she just said. After about a minute, the Black Paladin walked over towards Felecia and proceeded to slam his hand on the keyboard, instantly grabbing Felecia's attention.

"Listen to me, Felecia!" He said in a sterner tone of voice. "I still can't remember what happened back when Amrita and I were prisoners…so whatever I did or didn't do, I'm sorry. However, that has nothing to do with anything right now. Right now, we need to focus on the bigger picture and that's taking down Zarkon! If we don't then everyone in the universe are going suffer, just like Amrita. Is that what you want, Felecia? Well?!"

For a moment, Felecia was stunned by Marcus's words as not only was she shocked by how he raised his voice at her, but also by the fact that what he said made a lot of sense. As Princess Erina told them earlier, the Galra Empire had already conquered most of the universe and if they weren't dealt with soon, then billions of innocent lives will suffer by their hands, just like Amrita. Felecia knew that, but her concern for Amrita and her wellbeing was conflicting by what was right. She was about to respond to Marcus's words, but stopped herself when something caught her eye.

Somehow, the computer screen that she's been trying so hard to access was now activating. When both she and Marcus saw this, the two Paladins immediately wondered why this was happening, but it soon became clear after Felecia looked down at the keyboard. The computer was working now due to the fact that it was being powered by Marcus's Galra arm. When she saw that, the Green Paladin saw that this was the opportunity that she was looking for, prompting her to immediately begin type of the keyboard at a blinding speed.

When Marcus took notice to this sudden change of expression, the Black Paladin turned his head towards the computer screen and saw that it was now active. He also noticed that Felecia was frantically searching through all the files, obviously searching for any leads on Amrita. Realizing that there was no talking to her while she was like this, Marcus decided to leave and rejoin the others. However, just as he was about to take his hand off of the computer, Felecia immediately slammed it back down, catching his attention.

"Marcus, don't move!" She told him. "Your arm is the only thing powering this computer. If you leave, it'll shut off and all the date could be lost!"

"But Felecia…" Marcus said, trying to interject.

"No buts! This could be my only chance and I'm not about to let it pass on by!"

With that said, the Green Paladin went back to work, combing through the files at an even faster rate. From what she could tell, most of the files were corrupted due to the damage the computer suffered. Still, she was able to find something that seemed to detail a portion of the prisoner logs. This was precisely the information that she was looking for and so Felecia immediately began looking through them as quickly as she could.

While that was going on, Marcus was extremely conflicted about this entire situation. He wasn't sure whether or not he should let Felecia continue her work or just leave, even though doing so could possibly ruin any chance of discovering Amrita's whereabouts. In the end, just as he was about to give in and let his teammate continue her work, the Black Paladin took notice of something that immediately caught his eye.

Thanks to the scanner that was installed into his Paladin armor, Marcus noticed that something had just entered the planet's atmosphere and was heading towards them at an incredible speed. Realizing that they were in danger, Marcus quickly turned towards Felecia and pulled her away from the dashboard.

"What the hell are you doing?!" She angrily asked him. "I was almost…"

"I'm sorry, Felecia!" Marcus replied as he forcibly got the two out of the ship. "But we have a big problem on our hands right now!"

As Marcus literally dragged Felecia out of the ship, he immediately activated the communicator that was installed into his Paladin armor, hoping to contact the others before it was too late.

"Everyone! Something just entered the atmosphere and is heading this way. Evacuate the area immediately! I repeat, evacuate immediately!"

While the Black Paladin continued issuing out his warning, the object that raining down from the sky was heading towards the ground at an incredible speed. It was so fast in fact that Marcus wasn't entirely sure that both he and Felecia could get away in time. Eventually, the object hit the surface of Arus, and the resulting impact created a small explosion that seemed to consume both Felecia and Marcus.

Fortunately, as the smoke from the explosion began to clear, both Paladins realized that they somehow managed to survive. As they wondered how, both looked up and saw that both the Black and Green Lions were standing right above them. It was at that moment that the two of them realized what just happened.

"Our Lions saved us." Marcus stated as he looked on in amazement.

"I didn't know that they could do that." Felecia followed, looking equally amazed.

Although they haven't been piloting them for very long, the fact remained that Marcus and Felecia, along with the rest of their teammates, have already established a bond with their respective Lion. As a result, the Lions are usually aware of their generally location and will go them if they feel they are in danger, which just happened to be the case.

Now that they were safe, Marcus and Felecia waited for the smoke to clear so that they could see what just crash landed on the planet. Once the smoke did let up, the two of them saw that the object was an extremely large container that had a purple light emanating from its edges. Just looking at gave the Paladins goosebumps, especially Marcus, who began break out in a cold sweat. Sensing that they were in danger, the Black Paladin immediately turned towards Felecia.

"Hurry and get in your Lion!" He ordered.

As soon as she heard that commanded, Felecia nodded her head and immediately raced towards the Green Lion. Marcus quickly followed suit and made his way towards the Black Lion, who knelt down and opened its mouth, allowing him to enter. Once the both of them were inside and entered their respective cockpits, the Paladins braced themselves as they wondered what was going to happen next.

Meanwhile, as this was going on, Erina and the others were busy evacuating all the Arusian out of the immediate area. They managed to receive Marcus's communication in time and although they wanted to assist him and Felecia, they also knew that they couldn't just abandon the Arusians. After she determined that all the Arusians were safe and sound, Erina turned her attention towards Sasuke and the rest of the Paladins.

"I'll handle things here," She told all of them. "Rest of you get to your Lions and assist Marcus and Felecia!"

Right away, both Sasuke and Tony nodded their heads in agreement and began making their way towards the Castle of Lions. Kevin wasn't as eager to join them, especially since he had a very bad feeling about the whole thing. Unfortunately for him, Sasuke wasn't about to let him stand there and do nothing. To that end, the Red Paladin forcibly grabbed ahold of his teammate and dragged him back to the castle.

Back with Marcus and Felecia, the two of them continued to look on cautiously as the object in front of them started glowing slightly. As she wondered what it was and, more importantly, what was inside it, the young woman noticed that the Green Lion's energy scanners were beginning to spike. Just seeing those readings bothered Felecia a great deal, causing her to be on edge as she knew something was about to happen. Marcus felt the same way as her, also braced himself for what was to come.

Eventually, after about another tense minute of waiting, the object suddenly expelled a large amount of steam as it began to fall apart. Once all its pieces fell to the ground, Marcus and Felecia looked on in shocked as a giant armored monster was revealed to be inside of it. The size of this creature easily dwarfs their Lions, and it was obvious from just looking at it that this thing was incredibly powerful as well. To that end, Marcus knew right away that they couldn't act rashly when engaging it.

"Okay Felecia…" The Black Paladin said as he spoke to his teammate. "Let's take this nice and…"

Before Marcus could even finish speaking, Felecia rashly made the first move and rashly had the Green Lion charge towards the creature. Once she got close enough, she took aim as she began charging her Lion's laser cannon.

"Eat laser, freak!" She exclaimed.

Opening its mouth, the Green Lion fired off a powerful laser blast at the creature. When the blast made contact, Felecia hoped that the attack would at least do some damage, even with the armor that it was wearing. Unfortunately, much to her disappointment, not only did her attack didn't do anything at all, the creature didn't seem to be fazed by it at all.

Once her initial strike was over, the Green Paladin looked on as the creature slowly began to move for the first time. She then watched in astonishment as it began to quickly pick up speed, instantly rushing towards her. This forced her to fly up into the air in order keep her distance, but it didn't do her much good as the monster simply responded by firing off a pair of lasers from its eyes. Although she tried her best to avoid it, Felecia's piloting skills were simply not up to par, and the Green Lion ended up being struck by the lasers as a result. Fortunately, as she was falling towards the ground, Marcus managed to catch her with the help of the Black Lion.

"Hey Felecia, are you alright?!" Marcus asked in a concerned tone of voice.

"Um…Yeah…I'm fine." Felecia answered as she slowly shook the cobwebs out of her head.

Although he managed to catch her in time, Marcus could tell that Felecia was quite shaken up from that short exchange. In addition, this was her first real battle and so it was natural that she might end up making a mistake. Because of that, Marcus decided that was best for him to take the lead in this battle. To that end, he set the Green Lion down a good distance away from the creature before preparing to face it himself.

The two opponents stared each other down for a few moments before the creature responded by firing another laser blast from its eyes. With expert skill, Marcus was able to have the Black Lion avoid the attack before responding with a powerful laser attack of its own. Like with what happened when the Green Lion attacked it, the creature was able to resist the Black Lion's attack quite easily. Once he saw that, Marcus realized that he would have to do something different if he wanted to get in some damage.

"Alright…" He said as he gripped the Black Lion's controls. "Let's see how you deal with this!"

Pushing his controls forward, Marcus began making his way towards the creature at an incredible speed. This prompted the monster to begin charging towards the Black Lion as well. However, before the two of them could collided with one another, Marcus was skillfully able to outmaneuver the creature, causing it to trip and fall into the ground. Then, before it could even get up, the Black Lion got onto its back and Marcus had it fire another laser attack at point-blank range. The force of the attack was so great that it caused the creature to crash back into the ground.

As this was going on, Felecia finally managed to get it together and watched in amazement as Marcus was able to fight the creature on even ground. Although the Black Lion's attacks weren't doing much damage, the fact that Marcus able to use its speed too keep the creature on its toes as still quite impressive. Just seeing this showed Felecia that Marcus's reputation at the Galaxy Garrison was not only warranted, but also quite deserved.

Soon, after avoiding another one of the creature's attacks, Marcus had the Black Lion ram its body into its torso, causing it to fall back down again. Once that happened, the Black Paladin decided that the time was now to launch a more decisive blow and thus began charging up the Black Lion's lasers again. He then took aim at the creature's head, as it seemed to be the one area where the least amount of armor was located.

However, just as he was about to launch his next attack, Marcus found himself stopping for some reason. This stunned Felecia greatly as it clear to her that he had a chance to finish the creature off. Because of that, she decided to contact Marcus in order to see what was wrong.

"Marcus!" She called out too. "Hey Marcus! Are you alright? What's going on?"

Marcus didn't react to Felecia's words. All he did was continue looking at the creature as he got a good look at its face. There was something about this monster that reminded him of something, and it was causing him to be feel very nervous. Then, as he got an even closer look at it, Marcus became even more nervous as memories began flood into his mind.

"It…It can't be…"

After getting one last look at the creature's face, Marcus's eyes began to widen in shock as he began to recall his time as a Galra prisoner. All the physical and mental torture that he was forced to endure immediately overwhelmed him, causing the Black Paladin to suffer a panic attack as he let go of the Black Lion's controls. This caused the Lion to remain motionless in the air as the creature began to pick itself up.

Once the creature was back on its feet and saw that the Black Lion wasn't moving, it immediately responded by taking its massive fist and punching it straight on. The force of the attack was so great that it sent the Black Lion crashing hard onto the ground. Upon seeing this, Felecia immediately realized that something was wrong and quickly headed back towards the action.

"MARCUS!"

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_As the battle with the Galra's newest weapon continues, the remaining Paladins soon arrive to assist their teammates. However, with Marcus still suffering from his panic attack, our heroes quickly find themselves overwhelmed. Can the Paladins finally get it together and manage to form Voltron again and what really happened between Marcus and Amrita back at the Galra prison?_

_Next Time, Chapter 10: The Showdown on Arus – Part 2_


	10. Chapter 10

**Voltron: **_Universal Defender_

**Fanfiction by**: _Spirit Reader and Serpentdragon_

**Voltron created by**: _Toei Animation, World Events Production, and DreamWorks Animation_

**Chapter 10**: _The Showdown on Arus – Part 2_

* * *

"C'mon man, hurry up!"

"I'm going as fast as I can! Don't rush me!"

This was the scene in the docking bay inside of the Castle of Lions. Having just received word that some kind of creature had just landed on the planet and was engaging both Marcus and Felecia, the remaining Paladins immediately made their back to the castle so that they could get into their lions and assist them. However, as they have been doing for much of their time here on Arus, Sasuke and Tony found themselves getting into another argument. Although the two of them knew that this wasn't the time for this, a combination of stubbornness and their competitive natures made it hard for them to let things go.

Meanwhile, as the Red and Blue Paladins were at each other's throats, Kevin was hesitantly getting into the Yellow Lion. Out of all his teammates, he was the least willing to fight that creature. As a matter of fact, all Kevin really wanted to do was go home. Still, although that's what he wanted to do, Kevin also knew that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he just abandoned the others. Because of that, despite being on verge of vomiting, Kevin got into the Yellow Lion and watched as the mechanical beast began to activate.

Once it was fully online, the Yellow Lion let out a powerful roar as it flew out of the castle and began making its way towards the action. Upon seeing that, Sasuke and Tony stopped themselves from coming to blows and looked at each other. They then decided to settle their dispute later and proceeded to get into their Lions as well. As soon as they were inside them, the Red and Blue Lions also activated and flew out of the castle, quickly joining the Yellow Lion.

Meanwhile, just outside of the Arusian settlement, Felecia and the Green Lion were busy trying to fend off the monster that was attacking them. As she did so, Felecia noticed that the Black Lion was still on the ground, lying motionlessly. When she saw that, the Green Paladin was both concerned and frustrated as it wasn't that long ago that the Black Lion had this monstrosity on the ropes. But now the situation had flipped 180 degrees and it was the creature who was now in control. This soon prompted Felecia to try and get in contact with the Lion's pilot and find out what's wrong.

"Marcus!" She called out too. "Marcus, can you hear me?! What's going on?! What happened?!"

Felecia waited to hear a response, but none was given. The Black Lion was still lying on the ground and the young woman had no idea what was going on with it or its Paladin. She was about to make way over to them, but she suddenly found herself being slammed into the ground. When she turned around, Felecia saw that the creature was right on top of her and was about to crush with its powerful fists. Fortunately, before that could happen, she managed to move the Green Lion out of the way in time.

Once she was out of harm's way, Felecia stared at the creature while trying to come up with a way to take it down. It was clear to her that her Lion isn't strong enough to take it down by itself. Not only does it not have the physical strength to do so, but the Green Lion's lasers aren't strong enough to get through the monster's armor either. No matter how she looked at it, Felecia was in a tough spot.

Eventually, the creature attempted to attack the Green Lion again, but Felecia managed to keep her distance by flying up into the air. The creature responded to this by jumping up and trying to strike it, but Felecia simply lifted the Lion higher so that it couldn't reach it. After about a while, the creature gave up on trying to get Felecia. Instead, it turned its attention towards the fallen Black Lion and began making its way towards it.

"Oh no…" Felecia said as she saw this. "Damn it!"

Reacting almost on instinct, Felecia pushed the throttle on the Green Lion's controls and began making her towards the monster at an incredible speed. She then got on top of the beast and attempted to rip its head off with the Lion's jaws. As she did so, she tried calling out to Marcus again.

"C'mon Marcus, get up! I really need your help!"

As the Green Lion continued clawing away at the beast, Marcus was simply staring out into space while inside the Black Lion's cockpit. He was a nervous wreck as painful memories from when he captured by the Galra continued to flood his thoughts. Because of that, the Black Paladin found himself completely shut down and unresponsive to anything going on around him.

Soon, the creature managed to shake the Green Lion off its head and quickly punched it away. The sheer force of the impact sent the Green Lion crashing right into the Black Lion. It then started walking towards the two lions, intending to finish them off once and for all. When she saw that, Felecia tried her best to get her lion up while also trying to reach out to Marcus.

"Marcus, you have to get up!" She cried. "If you don't then you're going to die! Get up now!"

Again, neither Marcus nor the Black Lion responded to Felecia's pleas. She then looked on as the creature was right on top of her again and this time, she didn't have enough time to evade it. Because of that, the only thing the Green Paladin could do was brace herself for the worst. But just before she could be struck by the oncoming attack, several laser blasts shot down from the sky and began striking the monster repeatedly. Upon looking up, a huge smile appeared on Felecia's face as she saw both the Red and Blue Lions descending from the sky.

"Tony, lay down covering fire so that they can get out of there!" Sasuke yelled as he had the Red Lion fire a powerful blast from its mouth. "Do it now!"

"I'm on it!" Tony replied.

As the Red Lion continued firing at the creature directly, Tony used the tail laser on the Blue Lion to fire all around it. This barrage of attacks was just enough to get the monster to back way from the Green Lion, allowing Felecia to get away. She then joined her teammates in attacking it, tripling their attack power.

While the 3 Lions continued to assault, Kevin and the Yellow Lion were busy looking on from afar. They then made sure they were directly behind the creature before charging towards it.

"Alright!" Kevin said as he gathered up his courage! "Eat my Battle Lion Headbutt!"

Placing the Yellow Lion's head down, Kevin slammed right into the creature's back, causing it to fall on its face. Once that happened, he immediately flew up to his teammates as began panting rather heavily. When the others saw this, all three of them were impressed by Kevin's attack as it looked it did quite a bit of damage. However, it wasn't enough to defeat it as the creature quickly picked itself back up.

"What is that thing?!" Kevin nervously asked.

"I'm not sure." Felecia answered truthfully. "But I think it was sent by the Galra."

"Well, there's one thing we do know." Tony followed. "This thing's tough as hell. Even with all of us attacking it we barely made a dent in it!"

While Tony, Felecia, and Kevin were debating what they were going to do, Sasuke took a moment to notice that the Black Lion was still lying on the ground. Sensing that something wasn't right, the Red Paladin landed his lion right next to the Black Lion and tried to contact Marcus.

"Marcus!" He called. "Marcus, it's Sasuke! What's going on?!"

"That won't work, Sasuke." Felecia said as she contacted her teammate. "Nothing seems to be reaching him."

"Then what happened?" Sasuke asked as he turned to face her. "There has to be a reason behind this. This isn't like Marcus at all!"

Upon hearing him say that, Felecia realized that Sasuke was right and tried to figure out what exactly is causing Marcus to lay around and do nothing. She took a moment to recall the beginning of the battle and how Marcus was using his superior piloting skills to outmaneuver the creature. Then, just when it looked like they were about to attack it from close range, the Black Lion suddenly stopped moving. It was clear that something happened during that moment, but Felecia couldn't figure out what it was. Eventually, as she continued to think about it, a theory soon popped into her head.

"Wait a second…" She said as she examined the creature. "If this thing was sent by the Galra…then maybe Marcus knows it because he was their prisoner."

"What?!" Tony questioned. "But how could that be?!"

"Well…back when prisoners we rescued woke up, they told Marcus and I how he was a famous Gladiator back he was a prisoner." She explained. "They said he was undefeated and because of that, Marcus gained the name Champion. They also said that he…"

Before she could continue, Felecia stopped herself as she remembered the rest of what the prisoners told her and Marcus. Along with what she just said, the prisoners also mentioned that Amrita was with them and that Marcus had attacked her one day. Just thinking about that angered the young woman, causing her to lose her train of thought.

"Felecia…Hey Felecia!" Kevin called out too. "What else did they say?"

"Huh…?" The Green Paladin said as snapped out of her daze. "Um…Sorry. They didn't say anything after that. Anyway, I think that creature might be one the warriors that Marcus was forced to fight back when he was gladiator. I think he knows that too and that's why he stopped moving. Its appearance must've triggered his PTSD."

Upon hearing Felecia's explanation, the rest of the Paladins looked down at the fallen Black Lion as they all started thinking about Marcus. They all recalled how, although he would try his best to hide it, Marcus would sometimes freeze randomly during their training. Those freezes were caused by his PTSD, or posttraumatic stress disorder, which were the result of the hell he endured back when he was a prisoner. If this creature was indeed someone he knew back during that awful time, then it was no wonder why Marcus was being so unresponsive.

As they continued thinking about this, the Paladins soon noticed that the creature was coming straight at them. Reacting quickly, all four of them moved their lions out of the way and tried their best to subdue it. However, as the battle progressed, it was quickly coming apparent that they still lacked the strength needed to land a critical blow.

While all of this was going on, Princess Erina was busy observing the battle from a safe location near the Arusian settlement. She saw that the Paladins were in a tough spot and she wanted to try and assist them. However, she also knew that she couldn't just abandon the Arusian, who were all extremely frightened and were looking to her for guidance. Because of that, the princess saw that the only thing she could do was try and contact them via her wrist communicator.

"Paladins…!" She called out too. "Paladins, can you hear me?!"

"We…hear you…Princess!" Sasuke said as he tried avoiding the creature's attacks. "How are you and the…Arusians?"

"We're fine for now. But that might not be the case if you don't defeat that monster. You need to do something. You need to form Voltron!"

"But we can't form Voltron!" Kevin frantically revealed. "Marcus is completely out of it!"

Upon hearing Kevin say that, Erina pressed a button on her wrist device and a video feed of the battle of displayed before her. Through the feed, the princess saw that the Black Lion was still lying motionless on the ground. Something was clearly wrong and so Erina attempted to contact the Black Paladin so that she could help.

"Marcus! Marcus, can you hear me?"

Once again there was no response. Marcus could barely hear Erina's words as his painful memories were still overwhelming him. When she saw this, Erina didn't know what she should do. Never in her life as she ever felt so powerless and she began to wonder if this was the end. However, as soon as that thought crossed her mind, the young princess quickly shook her head in defiance. She knew that this couldn't be the end. Erina to herself that she and the Paladins would defeat the Galra Empire and save the universe and she had every intention of accomplishing that goal. Because of that, she tried contacting Marcus one last time.

"Marcus…" She tried calling out too. "Marcus, please listen to me. I can't begin to imagine what your going through right now and I can't bring myself to say that you're going to be alright. You've gone through something that would've easily broken a lesser man. However, no matter what you made be feeling, you can't let it break you! If you don't help your teammates right now then not only will you all perish, but it will only be a matter of time before the Galra enslave the entire universe. If that happens then every innocent being will be subjected to the same kind of suffering you went through. You can't let that happen, Marcus. So please…Please get up!"

At first, Marcus didn't react to Erina's words as she continued to just sit down in his cockpit. However, something soon began to stir within the Black Paladin. It was at that moment that he began to he began to take in the princess's words and realized that Erina was right. In addition to that, Marcus slowly saw through his lion's display screen that his teammates were in a lot trouble. If he didn't do something right now, then everything the princess said would come true. Marcus knew that couldn't let that happen. As a result, he found the strength to get out of his funk and lifted the Black Lion back onto its feet.

As the lion let out a massive roar, the rest of the Paladins looked on in both excitement and relief as their leader was now back in the game. They then watched as the Black Lion began flying towards the creature, who began charging towards it in return. However, before the two of them could collide, Marcus skillfully duck under the monster and caught it off guard by slamming his lion into its upper body. He then moved out of the way as the creature began to stumble.

"Everyone!" He called out too. "Attack while its off balance!"

Without a second thought, Sasuke and the other Paladins obeyed their leader's order and had their lions fire at the creature. As they attacked it from the back, Marcus had the Black Lion fire off two sets of lasers blasts, one from its mouth and the other from its tail. The combined power of all the lasers was finally enough to knock the creature down. After that, Marcus flew up and joined the rest of his team.

"I'm sorry everyone." He said to them. "I didn't mean…to freak out like that."

"It's okay, man." Tony said, reassuring him. "We're just glad your back."

From the Black Lion's display screen, Marcus watched as he the faces of each of his teammates appear before him. One by one, Tony, Sasuke, and Kevin gave Marcus a small smile, showing him that everything was alright. He then turned towards Felecia, who simply looked at him for a moment before gently nodding her head at him. When he saw that, Marcus nodded his head in return, relieved that his teammates were so understanding.

Soon though, everyone watched as the creature slowly got back on its feet, ready to continue its fight with all of them. Even after being attacked by all five lions, it still had the strength to keep going. It was at this moment that Marcus truly realized that there was only one thing that could finally take this thing down.

"Guys…We have to form Voltron!"

"But how?!" Kevin asked. "We've spent the last couple of days trying to do it and we still can't get it right."

"This isn't about can or can't anymore, Kevin." Marcus told him. "It's whether we do or we don't! Look at us! We're 5 completely different people who, on surface, seem to not know the meaning of teamwork. But we do, as we proved just now. We've formed Voltron before, and I know we can do it again. It's time for all of us to finally prove that we're indeed the Paladins of Voltron and that we do have what it takes to save the universe! Are you guys with me?!"

One by one, the remaining 4 Paladins found themselves motivated by Marcus's passionate speech. As that happened, each of their lions began to give off a radiant glow.

"YEAH!" They all screamed in unison.

As the Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Lions continued glowing brighter, a bright purple light began to surround the Black Lion. A massive amount of energy quickly enveloped the Paladins, just like what happened when they first formed Voltron. Upon realizing that, they immediately began flying high into the air, with the Red and Blue Lions flying on the Black Lion's right while the Green and Yellow Lions were on its left. They then came together as a massive explosion of light suddenly enveloped the immediate area.

When the light quickly began to fade away, both Princess Erina and all the Arusians looked on in amazement as Voltron, the Defender of the Universe, finally appeared and prepared himself to face to alien creature. When the Paladins realized that they were finally able to reform the mighty warrior, all of them were greatly pleased by their accomplishment. Still, they knew that the battle was far from over and so they prepared themselves to continue the fight.

Upon seeing Voltron stand before him, the creature stared at it intently for a few moments before reaching down at its leg. It was here that a small opening appeared on its armor, revealing a small rod-like weapon. After taking it in hand, the creature then flipped a switch on the weapon, causing a large pink orb of energy to form right on top of it. The Paladins were somewhat surprised by the appearance of this weapon, but they kept their calm.

Soon, after about a minute of waiting, Voltron made the first move by racing over at the creature at an incredible speed. In response, the creature used the rod its was carrying to throw the orb at the mechanical warrior. However, using his piloting skills, Marcus was able to skillfully have Voltron dodge the attack. This gave Sasuke the opportunity to launch a powerful punch by using the Red Lion.

The force of the Red Lion's blow was so great that it sent the creature a few feet back. Then, before it could recover, Felecia swiftly followed things up by launching an uppercut with the Green Lion. Again, the force of the attack sent the creature back, this time into a small mountain. It was at that moment that Tony and Kevin used the Blue and Yellow Lions to have Voltron jump up. Then, after Marcus had positioned them in place, Sasuke and Felecia used their lions to slam down on the creature's chest.

"That's it, you guys!" Marcus said to his team. "Keep up the pressure! Don't let this thing have any breathing room!"

Right away, Sasuke and Felecia complied with Marcus's orders by using their lions to repeatedly punch the creatures face. Although it had incredible defenses, the Paladins knew that if they continued pressuring it, those defenses would soon fall apart. However, just when it seemed like that Voltron had everything under control, something unexpected happened.

From out of nowhere, the orb of energy that the Paladins avoided earlier suddenly reappeared and knocked Voltron aside. As the Legendary Defender slowly picked itself back up, the Paladins watched as the creature used its rod to call the orb to it before throwing it again. This forced Voltron to jump up and dodge it, but it here that the orb suddenly turned around and struck the robot right in the chest. The Paladins then found themselves crashing onto the ground, wondering what exactly is going on.

"Please tell me you guys just saw that!" Tony exclaimed.

"…Yeah." Kevin slowly confirmed. "But…I don't want to believe it."

As the Blue and Yellow Paladins lifted their controls in order to get Voltron back on its feet, the creature responded by launching its orb at the warrior again. Although Sasuke and Felecia attempted to use their lions to block it, the force the attack was so great that it sent Voltron flying right next to Arusian settlement. When Marcus saw this through his view screen, the Black Paladin realized that they were in a bad location.

"We've got to get out of here!" He told everyone. "If we don't then the princess and all the Arusians will be caught in the crossfire!"

Acting swiftly, Marcus used his controls to activate Voltron's wings. Then, with the help of the remaining Paladins, Voltron was able to get up and fly towards another section of the planet. Refusing to let it escape, the creature swiftly gave chase and even though it couldn't fly, it was still able to keep up with Voltron.

"Oh man, this is bad!" Kevin said as he began to freak out. "This is really, really bad!"

"Calm down, Kevin and help me jump!" Tony told his teammate.

As Marcus, Felecia, and Sasuke wondered what Tony was thinking, the Blue and Yellow Paladins shifted their controls to force Voltron to spring off a small mountain. Then, as it made its way towards the creature, Tony had Voltron prepare to launch an aerial kick attack by using the Blue Lion.

"Eat this, bitch!"

Just when it looked like Tony's attack was about to work, the creature threw its energy orb at Voltron. Although Tony was confident that Voltron would be able to overpower it, he failed to realize that the orb could be manipulated by the creature. Because of that, he was forced to watched as the orb simply moved out of the way and hit Voltron right in the face. This caused the mighty robot to land right on its back as it hit the ground.

"Nice one, Tony…" Sasuke said sarcastically.

"Well at least I had an idea!" Tony angrily replied. "I don't see you trying anything!"

As the two of them started to bicker, the energy orb slammed down on top of Voltron again. Then, after it returned to the creature, the monster jumped up and attempted to slam down on top of Voltron. Before it could land however, Marcus quickly moved Voltron out of the way.

"Felecia, fire lasers now!" He ordered.

"Right!" She yelled.

Moving her controls, Felecia prepared herself to fire the Green Lion's laser cannon at the creature. However, just when it seemed like the Green Lion was about to fire, something unexpected happened. For some reason, Voltron's wings suddenly shot from its back and came together to form a shield, which then attached itself to the Green Lion. When Felecia saw this, the young woman realized that she must've hit the wrong control and tried to remove the shield so that she could fire the laser.

"C'mon…C'mon, damn it! Get it together before…"

While Felecia was trying to remove the shield, the creature threw his energy orb and Voltron and with the Paladins still out of sync, the Legendary Defender was sent flying again. The Paladins then found themselves repeatedly by the orb, with each attack growing more and more powerful. Eventually, they found themselves crashing into another mountain as Voltron fell to its knees.

As the others were trying to figure out how the most powerful weapon in the universe was being overpowered like this, Marcus was trying his best to figure out some kind of strategy. While trying to do so, the Black Paladin found himself suffering a mild panic attack as his painful memories attempted to overwhelm him again. This caused him to lose focus as Voltron was knocked down again.

"We need to do something quick!" Sasuke pointed out. "Marcus…what's the plan? Marcus!"

Marcus heard Sasuke calling out to him, but his panic attack was making it difficult to respond. Soon, he found himself drifting in and out of reality as he began to flashback to the time, he was a Galra gladiator. But it was during this moment that a powerful revelation suddenly awoke with the Black Paladin, allowing him to regain his focus.

"I…I know this creature." He said. "It's Myzax…"

Upon hearing that name, Felecia suddenly shot up from her seat. She then immediately contacted Marcus as her face appeared on his view screen.

"You mean the Galra gladiator that the prisoners said you defeated?!" She questioned. "Is it really him?"

"I think so…" Marcus replied. "I couldn't tell at first because of that armor…But the way he's fighting us with that weapon is just like how Myzax fought when I faced him. If that's really is the case…then I know how to beat him!"

Before Marcus could explain his strategy to his team, Myzax was racing towards Voltron again. Right way, the Legendary Defender back away from it in order to maintain its distance. However, this only resulted in the creature preparing to throw its energy orb again. It was at that moment that Marcus explained his plan.

"Guys…There's a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon." He said. "And every third time that orb needs to charge up, that's this monster's weakest point! That's when we have to strike!"

"Um okay…" Kevin said as he listened. "So…what do we do in the meantime?"

"We have to play defense!" Sasuke quickly answered.

Just as all was said and done, Myzax took aim and threw his energy orb at Voltron. Although his first instinct was to try and dodge, Marcus realize that Myzax would simply manipulate the orb with his weapon. They had to stand their ground and fortunately they had just the means to do so.

"Felecia, get the shield up!"

Upon hearing Marcus say that, the Green Paladin immediately understood her teammate's intention. To that end, she lifted the Green Lion up so that the shield was right in front of Voltron. The robot then took the attack and although the impact sent it back a few feet, Voltron was able to withstand it. The Paladins then watched as the orb returned to Myzax's weapon.

"That's one!" Marcus revealed. "Two more to go!"

Right on cue, Myzax threw the orb again and for the second straight time, Voltron was able to withstand it thanks to its shield. However, the power of the second attack was much greater than the first and the Paladins were having a hard time keeping steady. Still, they knew that they had to hold on just a little while longer.

"Here comes the last one!" Marcus said as he watched Myzax throw the orb. "Everyone, brace from impact!"

Using all its strength, Myzax threw the orb at Voltron and, due to the sheer strength of the attack, the warrior's shield was sent flying as it began to stumble around. Luckily, both Tony and Kevin were able to keep Voltron steady and prevent it from falling over. The Paladins then watched as the orb returned to Myzax and began to charge, having used up its three attacks. It was at that moment that Marcus realized that the time to attack was now.

"FIRE!"

Almost immediately, Sasuke responded to Marcus's command and pushed the throttle of the Red Lion's controls. This caused Voltron's right arm to fire off a powerful laser blast that struck Myzax right into its chest and sent it crashing into the ground. The remaining Paladins then looked on as it seemed like they finally brought the stubborn creature down. Sadly, that wasn't the case at all.

Despite exploiting its weapon's weakness and even landing a powerful counterattack, Myzax was still able to get back up. Not only that, but enough time had passed for its weapon to fully charge. The sight of that frustrated the Paladins a great deal as they were now right back where they first started.

"Our plan didn't work!" Felecia pointed out.

"So, what do we…"

Before Tony could ask what, they could do next, Voltron found itself being struck head on by Myzax's energy orb. Without the shield to protect them, the Paladins took the full force of the blow and they were sent crashing into a large crater. They then watched as Myzax was about to launch its second attack while they were trying to get up.

While that was going on, Marcus flashed back to the first time he fought Myzax and tried to remember how he was able to defeat it the first time. The events of that day were still a bit fuzzy, but he was able to recall that he won while holding on to a sword-like weapon. It was here that the Black Paladin realized that they were trying to attack the wrong way.

"When I attacked him before, I had a sword!" He revealed. "We need something sharp to break through its armor!"

"But…how are we to supposed to get our hands on something like that?!" Kevin frantically questioned. "It's not like we can form one out of thin…"

Again, the energy orb cut off the Paladins as it struck Voltron again. This time, the attack did a significant amount of damage and the Paladins saw that their systems were all in the red. If they didn't do something quickly then there was a strong possibility that the third attack would break Voltron apart and finish them off. However, without the weapon that they needed, the situation seemed completely hopeless.

While trying to figure out what to do, Sasuke suddenly heard something calling out to him through his lion. It was almost like the Red Lion was attempting to contact him through the bond they shared. He then watched as a strange port opened on a section of his control panel. As he tried to make sense of it, Sasuke once again heard something call out to him.

_Use your Bayard!_

After hearing those words, Sasuke looked down at his side and instinctively summoned his Bayard through his Paladin armor. He then stared at it for a few moments before looking over at the port that had just appeared. It was at this moment that the Red Paladin began to put 2-and-2 together.

"Guys…I think my lion telling me how we can win this." He told the others.

"Well hurry up and do it!" Tony replied. "That thing is about to fire its third shot!"

In the instant that Tony said that, Myzax threw the orb at the fallen Voltron. Reacting quickly, Felecia noticed that the shield was right next to them and used the Green Lion to summon it back. She then attempted to block the attack and although they were able to withstand it, Voltron was sent flying back again. This time though, the group discovered that they were tossed closed to the Arusian settlement again, meaning that they were just on top of the princess and the others.

Upon seeing Voltron struggle to get back up, Myzax decided that the time was now to finish this and proceeded to run towards robot. It then jumped up and prepared to strike them down with his energy orb. Before that could happen, Sasuke used all his strength and let out a powerful scream as he took his Bayard and inserted it into the port.

"WE WON'T LOSE TO YOU!"

After twisting his Bayard to the right, Sasuke watched as the Red Lion's head suddenly struck the Green Lion's, resulting in a bright flash of light to emerge in between them. Voltron then positioned itself and proceeded to swing out its right arm, almost like it was drawing a sword. This caused a beam of light to suddenly strike directly through Myzax. The two warriors then stood still for a few seconds before Myzax fell to its knees as a discharge of purple electricity began to emerge from its body. The creature then exploded, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

Once Myzax was gone, Voltron sat up and the Paladins all looked on in amazement as the warrior was holding a powerful sword from inside the Red Lion's mouth. Marcus, Felecia, Tony, and Kevin then all started cheering in varying degrees while Sasuke was simply trying to take in what just happened.

"Whoa…" Kevin said in complete astonishment. "How did you do that, Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't answer Kevin's question as he couldn't quite explain it himself. Instead, the Red Paladin stared intently at his Bayard as he removed it from the port. He then let out a small smile as he lifted his head.

"…Thanks Red."

Back at the Arusian settlement, all the Arusian were busy celebrating Voltron's victory over Myzax while Princess Erina simply looked with a small smile on her face. Although her new Paladins cut it extremely close, they managed to pull it off in the end. She then placed her hand by her heart as she watched Voltron continued standing proudly.

"They did it, father…" She said quietly to herself.

* * *

"NOOOOO!"

As an ear-piercing shriek could be heard all throughout the Doombringer, the Galra's supreme command ship, High Priestess Haggar was letting out her frustrations as she had just finished observing the battle between Voltron and Myzax. She was able to do this as, just before it landed on Arus, the craft that brought her creation to the planet had release a small security drone. This drone recorded the entire battle, allowing both Haggar and Emperor Zarkon to watch on. However, the outcome of the match didn't end their favor as the Paladins were able to defeat the witch's creation.

Although Voltron is the most powerful weapon in the universe, Haggar believed that the new Paladins were incapable of using it effectively. Because of that, and because of how she created Myzax, Haggar assumed that victory was inevitable. The fact that Myzax lost not only angered her immensely, but it also resulted in a great amount of personal humiliation as well. She then began gritting her teeth a little as Zarkon simply looked on silently.

"I'll build another…One more powerful!" She told her emperor.

"…That won't be necessary." Zarkon informed her. "I've just received word that Sendak is still alive on Arus. I've given him instructions on how to proceed."

Caught off guard for an instant, Haggar glanced over at her master after hearing him mention Sendak's name. She had assumed that he was killed during his attempt to capture Voltron. Although the fact that he was alive to surprise her too much, as she was aware how strong the commander was, the fact that Zarkon was giving him a second chance is was shocked the High Priestess.

"Can he be trusted, my lord?" She honestly questioned. "He's already failed you once before."

Zarkon kept quiet as listened to Haggar's words. Without even acknowledging it, the Galra Emperor knew that his High Priestess made a good point. Normally he wouldn't tolerate failure, as many of his previous soldiers had the unfortunate pleasure of finding out. However, he also knew that Sendak was one of his most faithful followers, along with one of the most powerful. Dismissing him now, especially since he still had the chance to capture Voltron, would be a foolish mistake and Zarkon knew this.

"I've trained him and he has his mission." Zarkon told Haggar. "He fights in the name of Galra. Only success or death with stop him."

* * *

Back on planet Arus, with the dust having been settled, the Paladins of Voltron were busy helping the Arusians clean up the wreckage from the epic battle. As they did so, Princess Erina noticed that heroes were working together far more effectively than they were previously. She assumed it had to because of the teamwork they displayed when dealing with Myzax. In any event, Erina was pleased by the results as her Paladins had cleared another major hurdle in their new careers.

As they continued to tend to things, Felecia took a moment to stare out and examine the remains of Sendak's Galra ship. Because of the battle, the ship was destroyed and with it, any information it might have had on Amrita's whereabouts. Naturally, this saddened the Green Paladin, prompting her to stop what she was doing and take a quick break. As she left the area, Marcus noticed that Felecia was walking away and quietly followed her.

Soon enough, Marcus caught up with Felecia and saw that she was sitting down near a small cliff, staring out at the sunset. Based on the look on her face, the Black Paladin could tell that there was a lot on her mind. Although he had a pretty good idea what she was thinking about, Marcus still wanted to help her. To that end, he walked up and sat down right next to his teammate.

"Hey…" He said as he glanced at her. "Are you alright?"

"…I guess." Felecia answered halfheartedly.

Felecia continued staring out into the horizon while Marcus was trying to come up with the right words to say. Given the issues that they had previously, Marcus suspected that Felecia was still pretty upset with him. Even so, he still wanted to ease the tension between them. He was about to say something to her, but Felecia cut him off by speaking first.

"I'm sorry…" She told him. "You told me earlier that if we don't defeat Zarkon and the Galra, then thousands of innocent people will suffer. I didn't really pay it any mind because I didn't think it was any of my concern. However…while we were fighting that monster, I noticed how frightened the Arusians were. Then, when we beat it, I saw how happy and grateful they were. Once I saw that, I realized that I was wrong and that what we do…what I do, truly is important and is my concern."

Closing her eyes for a moment, Felecia let out a small sigh as she thought back to her argument with Marcus. She realized now that he was right and that it was wrong of her to put her own interests over everyone else, especially those who couldn't defend themselves. Still, there was on Felecia's mind, something that she needed to know before she could properly move on. Because of that, she opened her eyes and looked back at Marcus.

"Marcus…why did you hurt Amrita? You two were supposed to be friends."

"…I did it to save her." Marcus answered.

Felecia eyes widen after hearing Marcus give her an answer. However, from the moment she heard it, the Green Paladin found that answer to be extremely hard to believe. Marcus quickly understood that and so he elaborated on his answer.

"During our fight with Myzax…my memories of my time back when I was Zarkon's prisoner came back." He explained. "It allowed me to remember the last time I saw Amrita. The prisoners we rescued were right when they said I attacked her…but it wasn't because I was eager for a fight. It's because if I didn't…then Amrita would've been forced to fight Myzax instead."

"What…Amrita was scheduled to fight that thing?" Felecia questioned.

"Yeah…" Marcus confirmed. "Amrita is a lot of things. She's smart, kind, and is always willing to put others before herself. However...she's not a fighter. She was afraid of facing Myzax and I knew that if she fought him with that kind of mindset, she wouldn't survive. I couldn't let that happen…especially since she kept mentioning how she wanted to get back to Earth and reunite with a girl she was dating. A girl named Felecia. So…I did the only thing I could to protect her."

Closing his eyes for a moment, the Black Paladin thought about the moment just before Amrita was to be taken into the gladiator arena. Acting quickly, Marcus grabbed one of the bladed weapons that Galra sentries were holding and used it to injure Amrita's leg. He then explained how he was going fight and that he wanted blood. However, as he got on top of Amrita, he noticed the shock and fear in her eyes. It was at that moment he revealed his true feelings and said something to her.

_You must survive and reunite with the one you love!_

As soon as Marcus said that to her, the sentries grabbed him and forced the young man to fight Myzax first. That was the last time he saw Amrita as, after the battle was over, she was nowhere to be found. Although he was worried about her, Marcus had faith that Amrita was determined enough to survive everything the Galra could throw at her. Upon reopening his eyes, Marcus looked on and saw that Felecia was beginning to tear up.

"You saved her…" She said as tears ran down her face. "You attacked her so that they would choose you instead."

With the truth having now been brought to life, Felecia firmly embraced Marcus as she cried into his chest. She realized now that she was completely wrong about him and that her anger truly was misplaced. Marcus, after seeing her do this, simply hugged Felecia as she continued to cry.

"Thank you…Thank you so much!"

The two Paladins continued to embrace one another for a few more moments. Eventually, Felecia managed to calm down and wipe her tears away. She then watched as Marcus gently placed both of his hands upon her shoulders.

"Listen Felecia…" He started off. "I know you miss Amrita…and I know she misses you too. I give you my word that I won't rest until I see the two of you happily reunited. However…you must know that there are thousands of innocent souls who might not get that chance. As Paladins of Voltron, we can help those enslaved by the Galra reunite with their own love ones. I know that if Amrita was here, she wouldn't hesitate to do her part to help. So…I'm asking you to please do your part and fully be a part of this team. Will you do that for me?"

Upon hearing that request, Felecia looked at Marcus for a moment before gently nodding her head at him. This whole experience has taught her what's really important and that the best way to save Amrita was to defeat Zarkon and save the universe. With that, the two Paladins proudly shook hands.

"You have my word, Marcus." She said with a smile.

"I'm glad to hear that." Marcus replied with a nod. "Now c'mon…let's rejoin the others."

With everything now settled between them, the Black and Green Paladins got up and proceeded to make their way back to the others at the Arusian village. The two of them still had a long way to go when it came to protecting the entire universe. But, if they continued to work together and trust in one another, both Marcus and Felecia knew that everything would be alright in the end.

Meanwhile, as all of this was transpiring, a small group was busy making moves in the forest just outside the village. This group was being led by Sendak, the Galra Empire's High Commander. Together with Haxus, his top lieutenant, and a couple of sentry drones, Sendak has been silently biding his time until he could make a proper move. He underestimated the Paladins once and he wasn't about to make the same mistake again.

"Zarkon has challenged us to rise from the mud and prove our worth." He told Haxus and he observed the Arusian village. "We will not let him down!"

Haxus nodded his head in agreement. The lieutenant felt the same deep shame that his commander felt and was just as eager to get his revenge. However, he also noticed something that needed to be brought up.

"Sir…" He said to Sendak. "How are we going to take the castle with two of us and a handful of sentries."

"…By exploiting our enemy's weaknesses." Sendak revealed.

"What weaknesses?"

Sendak remained quiet for a moment as he continued to look on at the Arusian village. He then watched as the Paladins were busy happily befriending the tiny creatures, helping them repair the damage done to their home. Although he suspected it when he watched Voltron go up against Myzax, what he was seeing now confirmed it.

"The worst weakness of all…They value the lives of others."

* * *

_**Chapter Preview**_

_Although the Paladins managed to defeat Myzax, they're not out of trouble yet. With renewed determination, Sendak makes his grand return and comes up with a plan that nearly brings him victory. Can the Paladins stop him and protect their Lions? It's not going to be easy, especially when a member of team is gravely injured and left on the verge of death._

_Next Time, Chapter 11: Battle for the Castle of Lions – Part 1_


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